The Haunted Campgrounds
by The Silent Assassin HB
Summary: Duncan and a few friends decide to visit the old abandoned campgrounds on Wawanakwa Island in the Halloween spirit. There they find more than a few abandoned cabins and a creepy forest… A mystery long forgotten, and a cry for help. AU.
1. All in the Spirit

**Ja so quick authors note. I started this since Halloween ist right around the corner. I might finish this before, might finish it after, who knows. I do intend to finish this though. No real pairings since half the couples are... well you'll find out. It does revolve around Duncan und Courtney however. Plus a bit of DxG _FRIENDSHIP_. Thought I'd try my hand at a little mystery so let me know how it goes. I had something else to say but I forgot... meh enjoy. Rating will probably go up in later chapters. One or two quotes from TDI/A. Not mine seeing as I don't own TDI/A. (If I did Courtney would stop being a bitch and get to makin out vith Duncky...) Sigh. One can only dream.**

_ Chapter 1: All in the Spirit_

Duncan leaned over the railing of the boat staring down at the murky lake water that splashed up against the side of the boat. Shivering slightly he burrowed deeper into his black hoodie. God it was freezing! But that was to be expected. After all it was the middle of Fall with Halloween just around the corner, hence him being on the boat in the first place. The cool mist that occasionally sprayed up on his face didn't help much, so he decided to back away from the railing.

"Yo, DJ!" Duncan called over his shoulder still staring down at the water. "How much longer?"

"Not to much longer." His friend's nervous voice called back from where he was steering the boat. "We should be able to see the island soon."

"I still say we should have stayed home for Halloween." I voice grumbled behind him. Rolling his eyes Duncan turned to see a scrawny redhead with huge green tinted glasses who was organizing some cards by the looks of it.

"And do what? Trick-or-treat like a bunch of kids?" Duncan sneered. The redhead looked up to glare at him before returning to his cards.

"Aw come on Duncan, trick-or-treating isn't that bad. You used to love it as a kid." Another voice said. The one who had spoken, a girl with dark hair and blue streaks, was sitting against the railings with a sketchpad in her hands. Her name was Gwen and she and Duncan had been friends since Kindergarten.

"Yeah, he loved that he could have one day when he could practically do anything he wanted and get away with it. The treats were just a perk." The redhead scoffed rolling his eyes. Duncan glared at him again.

"Hey lighten up guys, this is goanna be great!" Another voice said.

"See? Tyler's got the right idea." Duncan said with a smirk. Tyler, wearing his usual red tracksuit to keep him warm, shot him a thumbs up before disappearing down below, probably to get some food.

"I don't know Duncan… Maybe Harold is right. Maybe we should head back…" The redhead Harold looked proud of himself as he glanced over at the girl who sat beside Gwen. Bridgette, who was trying to stay warm in her regular blue hoodie and jeans, looked nervous as her eyes darted from place to place as if expecting something to jump out and eat her.

"Aw come on Bridge, where's your sense of adventure." Gwen teased nudging her friend playfully.

"Yeah. If you two are so scared you should have stayed home." Duncan scoffed crossing his arms over his chest. Bridgette shrugged while Harold stayed silent. Instead of doing the same old routine of scaring innocent children and conning adults for candy Duncan and his four friends, and Harold, decided to do something a little different. Duncan Gwen Bridgette Tyler and DJ had all planned to borrow DJ's dad's boat and take it out to an island a few miles away that was supposedly haunted. Harold, his annoying cousin, had whined to his mom to let him go to. Duncan didn't even know why he wanted to go, he hated Harold's guts and vice-versa, but Duncan's aunt's word was law. So the nerd had to be dragged along with them. Bridgette was just a plain scaredy cat, but Gwen had convinced her to come along with them. Said she couldn't survive a whole weekend surrounded by just guys.

"This is goanna be awesome. A whole weekend on a haunted island!" Tyler exclaimed as he reappeared back on the deck again, a large bag of chips in his hand.

"And with Halloween two days away you can bet the spirits will be out and about! Ghosts and ghouls, and banshees of all kinds!" Duncan said waggling his fingers menacingly.

"Oh please. Everyone knows there's no such thing as ghosts. The possibility of any sort of otherworldly specter hanging around an island, or anywhere for that matter, is incredibly far fetched it you ask me." Harold said in a matter of fact tone.

"Well no one _did _ask you, did they, Count Dorkula."

"Don't be such a killjoy." Gwen agreed leering at Harold over her sketchbook.

"After all, it's all in the Halloween spirit! Who else gets to spend an entire weekend on an old abandoned island in the middle of nowhere?"

"Middle of nowhere is right! I can't even see the lights of the mainland anymore." Bridgette said nervously looking all around her. Water surrounded her on all sides, and it was getting close to sunset.

"We could have stayed in a haunted house." Harold grumbled.

"Yeah, but everyone stays in a haunted house!" Tyler exclaimed with a mouthful of chips. Swallowing he suddenly narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice. "Besides, as far as we know, no one has even set foot on this island in years…" he whispered as his eyes darted back and forth.

"The ghosts keep intruders away by covering the island in such a thick fog you can't even see your trembling hand in front of your terrified face." Duncan added with the same deep dark voice. Tyler Duncan and Gwen laughed while Bridgette frowned and Harold rolled his eyes.

"Hey guys! Look, you can see the island." DJ called. Duncan hurried up the ladder to where DJ was steering the boat and stood beside his friend. Peering out to where DJ was pointing he saw it, the haunted island.

"Sweet! How much longer till we get there?" Duncan asked. DJ shrugged in his brown and green jacket that was two sizes to big for even him.

"About a half an hour give or take. But dude, are you sure we should be going there? I mean… it's haunted!" DJ asked nervously. Duncan rolled his eyes at him.

"Come on man! We already got two wimps and we don't need another one. Besides this is goanna be awesome!"

"Yeah yeah. A whole weekend on a creepy abandoned island… joy." DJ sighed.

"Come on dude lighten up. It's all in the Halloween spirit." Duncan teased patting his friend on the shoulder. "Let's pick up the pace. We should get there before it gets to dark." Duncan added as he backed down the ladder.

"Aye aye captain." DJ said with a halfhearted salute.

The teens passed the time as they had been for the last few hours. Harold was playing with his lame cards, Gwen was drawing all sorts of scary Halloween stuff, Bridgette with playing with her cell phone, and Duncan and Tyler were arm wrestling. All of a sudden Duncan froze just as he was about to pin Tyler yet again and stared ahead of him wide-eyed in surprise.

"HA!" Tyler cheered using Duncan's distraction to his advantage and pinned his arm to the table with a thud. "I FINALLY BEAT YOU!" He cheered jumping up and pumping his fists in the air.

"What the heck is that?" Bridgette asked standing up from her position beside Gwen. Tyler stopped celebrating and glanced behind him to where everyone was staring and felt his jaw drop. A thick bank of fog had appeared out of nowhere right as they were getting closer to the island. It wasn't that the fog in itself was very surprising, just the fact that Duncan had been right about it.

"What I tell you? The spirits don't want us trespassing." Duncan said smugly folding his hands behind his head and leaning back in his chair. Bridgette whimpered and Harold rolled his eyes.

"Please! It's just beach fog." The nerd said from where he sat behind Duncan. Duncan scowled and smacked him upside the head earning a satisfied 'OUCH! Idiot!' from Harold.

"This fog looks really thick guys and the sun is going down, I don't know if I can navigate through this." DJ called trying to peer through the thick fog.

"Nonsense!" Duncan exclaimed jumping up from his seat. "If the spirits don't want us around then tough. A little fog wont stop us." With a smirk clear on his face Duncan approached the bow of the boat.

**(A/N: I think it's called the bow… you know, the front part.) **

Leaning over the railing he held his arms aloft and threw his head back. "Oh spirits here me! Grant us permission to your home! For we are here to help guide you to the great beyond! Heed my words and grant us entrance!" he shouted in a deep booming voice. Turning back to the teens who were looking at him skeptically he snickered. "Worth a try." He said in an innocent voice with a shrug. Glancing back over his shoulder he was surprised to see that the fog had thinned considerably and they could see the faint outline of the island just ahead. Duncan smirked victoriously and sat back down once more.

"Just a coincidence." Harold muttered shaking his head back and forth.

"Onward DJ!" Tyler exclaimed pointing towards the island dramatically. DJ sighed and continued on.

A few minutes later they found themselves slowly coming to a halt beside the old rotting dock of the island. The fog was much thinner now but still surrounded them in an eerie haze. Harold peered over the railing down at the old dock.

"That doesn't look very safe to me…" he said nervously.

"Well, one way to find out." Duncan said with an evil smirk, and then promptly pushed Harold over the railing. His girlish scream was cut short when he landed face first on the dock. "There see. Its plenty safe." Duncan said between laughs. Gwen walked up behind him also laughing and gave him a high five.

"Idiot…" Harold moaned from the dock. He groaned louder when a heavy duffle bag landed on his head and screamed when Duncan jumped down after it landing on his back, a sickening crack followed suit. "I think you broke my coccyx!" **(AKA Tailbone as I just learned from Google)** Harold cried.

"Aw suck it up." Duncan sniffed grabbing his bag and stepping off Harold. Bridgette jumped down next holding her bag as well as Harold's and helped the poor nerd to his feet. Gwen jumped down next followed by DJ and lastly Tyler. Soon all six teens stood side by side gazing at what lay before them with wide, curious eyes. They were at an old abandoned camp by the looks of it.

A sign stood to the right of them, the painting so faded they could barely make out the words _Wawanakwa _written on it. The dock led up to the campgrounds where they could see a bunch of old worn cabins that seemed to be crumbling where they stood. An old rusting speaker was placed in the center of the camp. A ways up they could also see what looked like a place where bonfires were held. All of them visibly shivered, and it wasn't because of the sudden cool breeze that glided over them.

"Wow." Bridgette muttered looking down at the eerie green water that swirled around the dock below them.

"This is beyond creepy." Gwen said with a tiny smile.

"And what better place to stay for Halloween." Tyler added.

"All in the Halloween spirit after all." Duncan said with a smirk and headed down the docks up towards the campgrounds with the others hurrying after him.

* * *

**Wonderbaur no? Lol. Anyvays aint Google grand? I never had any idea what Harold was talking about when Duncan landed on him that one time on the horse. They might be a little OOC, not sure. You be the judge of that. Going over it once more Harold sounds a bit like Noah to me. But no worries, Noah will appear soon along with the others. Reviews grandly appretiated as well as any advice or suggestions you might have for me. **


	2. Campfire Stories

_Chapter 2: Campfire Stories_

Glancing around his surroundings Duncan figured that the electricity wasn't working on the island since it was abandoned. Two cabins were on either side of him with a much larger one up ahead, probably the mess hall. Ignoring both of the cabins he headed towards the campfire pit. Setting down his bag Duncan glanced around again. Stumps were all arranged in front of what must have been the campfire pit, a shallow hole in the ground with stones surrounding it. Any soot that had once been in there must have gotten washed away over time.

"You guy's set up camp, I'll go get firewood." Duncan said already walking off towards the forest.

"You want us to stay _here_? Outside? In the open?" Bridgette asked incredulously looking around with wide afraid eyes.

"Well yeah. It is a camp after all." Duncan answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why don't we stay in the cabins?" Harold asked motioning towards the cabins a few feet away.

"No way man! The ghosts still probably sleep in there." Tyler said already unpacking the tents.

"And besides, I don't want to sleep in there with the constant fear of the roof caving in over my head." Gwen added dryly unrolling her sleeping bag. Harold huffed in defeat and set to work unpacking all the food they had brought.

"I'll be back then." Duncan said resuming his walk towards the forest.

"Don't go to far! You might get lost!" Bridgette called after him. Duncan smirked at her over his shoulder.

"Thanks for the concern Malibu. Don't worry, I wont go in to far. Just enough to get some wood." And with that Duncan disappeared into the dark forest.

A few minutes later Duncan returned with his arms full with wood to see their little camp already set up. The sun had set a long time ago and it was nearly pitch black, so they had turned on the giant lantern they had brought with them. Duncan set down the wood and began to strategically place the wood in the pit.

"Oh oh let me start the fire! In survivor camp I was the only one who could make fire with nothing but a leaf and my shoelace." Harold said proudly.

"That's what a lighter is for." Duncan deadpanned flicking his lighter on. In a matter of seconds a roaring fire lit up the pit while a crestfallen Harold sulked beside DJ.

"Marshmallows anyone?" Tyler offered holding up a huge back of marshmallows.

"You know it!" Gwen said snatching the bag out of his hands. Grabbing some spare sticks from Duncan's pile of wood the six of them skewered their marshmallows and cooked them over the fire. They sat in silence for a few minutes happily eating their marshmallows before DJ spoke up.

"You know, I've never really been to camp before." He said with a smile on his face gazing into the fire. "It's not so bad, if you take away the haunted cabins."

"Well I've been camping before." Bridgette said from where she sat between Gwen and Tyler.

"Oh really, and how was it?" Gwen asked with a tiny smirk. Bridgette glared at her. As if she didn't already know…

"I got five words for ya. Worst. Summer. Of. _My life._" Bridgette answered with extra enfaces on the last two words.

"Why?" Harold asked watching in fascination as his marshmallow caught fire.

"Well one night I went for a walk in the woods because I couldn't sleep. I got lost and couldn't find my way back and had to spend the whole night in the woods! The camp consolers didn't find me until noon the next day." Bridgette answered miserably. "Ever since then I've been terrified of being on my own in the forest… it creeps me out way to much."

"Wow, that's rough." Duncan said trying to sound sympathetic but ended up snickering. Bridgette glared at him.

"Oh shut it…" she muttered crossing her arms with a huff. Duncan stopped laughing and leaned back on his elbows staring into the fire.

"… You know, this reminds me of a really scary story my brother told me once." He said thoughtfully.

"Awesome! No campfire is complete without a scary story." Tyler said with a grin. Duncan smirked and nodded without looking up from the fire.

"Any of you ever heard of the legend behind this island?" The teens glanced at each other and shook their heads. "Didn't think so. Not very many people know about it."

"Sweet. Tell us." Gwen said crossing her arms over her knees and leaning forward in mock interest. Duncan smirked at her and began his tale.

"Years ago this placed was called Camp Wawanakwa, as you might have guessed." Duncan started with his favorite low story telling voice. "It was here that sixteen teenagers just like you and me competed against each other for 100,000 dollars in crazy challenges that the host made up… The challenges were both life threatening and insane, and soon the campers began to loose their grip on their sanity…

Because one day at breakfast, one of the campers snapped! It was during the halfway mark in the competition when only eight campers remained. He poisoned their food at breakfast in an attempt to get rid of the other competition, but somehow he accidentally slipped himself some to. They were all dead before lunch. Only the host and the chef, who ate their meals separately from the campers, lived on that horrific morning…" The teens were so engrossed in Duncan's story that none of them noticed two dark figures approaching their group from behind…

"Some say it was really the host who poisoned the dinner in an effort to boost their ratings." Duncan continued still with his menacing voice. "Others say it was one of the campers already voted off, bitter and angry from their loss. No one knows for sure. After all, the mystery is still unsolved to this very day. And because of that the campers still remain, haunting these very campgrounds, competing against each other for all eternity, and they wont rest in peace until one of them has won…"

Duncan narrowed his eyes and leaned forward with a smirk. "Spooky huh?" the teens were all staring at Duncan with wide eyes, their jaws slightly dropped. But they weren't looking at him, they were looking at something behind him…

"Who the heck are you?" A new voice asked from directly behind Duncan causing all six of them of them to promptly scream and back away from the two dark looming figures before them.

* * *

**Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to start a fire with nothing but a shoelace und a leaf? So there's the beggining with the story of what happened to the camp. But who are these two figures? Why are they here when the camp was supposedly abandoned? Are they ghosts? Find out next chapter... Don't forget to review.**


	3. Nightmares and Warnings

**Rating now up to T for language and a bit of a morbid scene**

_Chapter 3: Nightmares and Warnings _

The two figures stepped into the firelight to reveal… people. Two teenagers, one boy one girl, that looked about the same age as Duncan if not older. The boy had shaggy brown hair, pale skin, wore a cream colored jacket with red and green stripes on it, and gazed at the group of teens through narrowed blue eyes. The girl beside him looked like she could be his sister. She also had brown hair that was pulled back in a ponytail and wore a dark green long-sleeved shirt with a lighter green vest over it. She also wore large glasses similar to Harold's that magnified her wide afraid eyes. She clutched a bouquet of flowers to her side.

"I said who are you?" The boy repeated stepping forward. It was then the group noticed he clutched a bag of what looked like food in his left hand while he shone a flashlight at them in the other. A moment later the group of teens got over their initial shock of these sudden newcomers. Duncan, being the self elected leader of their group, glared at the two of them and stood up.

"We could ask you the same thing." He said suspiciously.

"You shouldn't be here." The girl said timidly, a slight slur in her words due to the braces. Tyler stood up and went to stand beside Duncan.

"Ok guys chill. Were not doing anything wrong, we just came to look around." He said holding up his hands in defense.

"If were trespassing we can leave." Bridgette added still cowering beside DJ. The girl looked surprised and shook her head.

"No… no no. Can't leave. Can't leave. They tried before, can't leave." She mumbled and began to tremble. The boy glanced at her with a sympathetic expression before glaring at Duncan and Tyler again.

"You shouldn't be here. They wont like it." He said darkly. Duncan and Tyler raised an eyebrow at each other.

"Who is this 'they' you keep talking about?" Tyler asked stepping forward causing the two newcomers to step back.

"And who are you guys? I thought no one has set foot on this island in years." Duncan added. The boy shook his head.

"Were here. They're here. They're all here." He muttered. "Leave now if you know what's good for you!" He suddenly snapped.

"Hey man what the hell are you-" Duncan's accusation was cut short when the two of them suddenly turned and bolted back towards the campgrounds. "What the! Hey, get back here!" Duncan hollered running off after them. Tyler watched him go for a second before running off after him.

Tyler caught up with Duncan quickly enough, both running blindly through the dark only following the teens silhouettes and the light from their flashlight.

"Get back here! Who are you?!" Duncan called running even faster than before. It seemed like they had almost caught up when suddenly the light and the silhouettes veered off to the side and disappeared altogether. Duncan came to a screeching halt causing Tyler to crash into him nearly sending them both to the ground.

"Damn! We lost them." Duncan growled under his breath. Glancing around trying to get his eyes adjusted to the darkness he realized that they were near the edge of the forest a ways away from the cabins.

"Where'd they go?" Tyler asked also looking around.

"I think they went into the forest." Duncan answered peering into the thick woods.

"Should we go after them?" Sighing Duncan shook his head.

"No. It's way to dark to go searching for them now. We should go tomorrow when the suns up." Tyler sighed in defeat as they made their way back to their little camp, using the pale light of the half moon and their distant fire to guide them.

When they got back the others had taken their previous spots around the fire and were looking around nervously. When Gwen saw them approaching out of the corner of her eye she jumped up with a scowl on her face, but visibly relaxed when she saw who it was.

"Oh. It's just you guys." She sighed in relief. "I'm guessing you lost them." Duncan and Tyler nodded their heads in yes earning another sigh of exasperation from Gwen who sat back down.

"Man who _were _those guys?" Harold asked mostly to himself.

"Who knows? But that was beyond creepy." Bridgette mumbled shaking slightly.

"Man I knew we shouldn't have come here! Those ghosts are goanna _kill _us!" DJ exclaimed in his nervous high-pitched voice.

"Relax DJ. Were not going to die and those weren't ghosts." Gwen said staring into the fire thoughtfully.

"How do you know?"

"I'm not sure. I just know they're not ghosts."

"Oh sure, that's helpful." Harold grumbled.

"Come on guys, Gwen is like an expert with this stuff." Duncan said.

"I still say we shouldn't have come. And you heard those two! We should leave now. As in right now!" DJ whined.

"We can't leave _now_. It's to dark to sail, you know that." Harold said.

"Yeah. And we still have to figure out what those two wanted and why they were here." Gwen added with a smirk.

"It seems like they're hiding something." Tyler said thoughtfully in the classic thinkers pose.

"They certainly seemed jumpy… They must want us off the island for a reason." Bridgette admitted.

"We'll figure out what to do tomorrow. It's to late to do anything now." Duncan said firmly. His friends nodded in agreement and that was that. Bridgette and Gwen disappeared into the tent they were sharing and Harold and Tyler disappeared into the other two tents. DJ stayed behind.

"I still say we should leave first thing tomorrow, before someone gets hurt." He said. And before Duncan could protest he entered the tent he and Tyler were sharing. Shrugging at nothing in particular Duncan tossed another log on the fire and crawled into his sleeping bag. He had no intention of sharing a tent with Harold and had planned to sleep outside anyways. He preferred sleeping under the stars, and this way he could keep watch if those two teens came back. Closing his eyes and burrowing deep into his sleeping bag, Duncan willed for sleep to come.

* * *

It seemed like Gwen had only closed her eyes for a minute when they snapped back open with a start. But instead of seeing the roof of the dusty brown tent like she expected she was in the forest that surrounded the campgrounds. But something was odd about the forest. Everything around her was dark gray and glancing up she saw that the sky was blood red with a black moon shining directly above her.

"Whoa… freaky." Gwen mumbled to herself, her voice echoing slightly in the dark forest. Standing up she turned around in a full circle. Dead gray trees surrounded her on all sides with seemingly no path out. Cupping her hands over her mouth she screamed.

"Duncan! Bridgette! Tyler, DJ, anyone! Where are you?!" She screamed. Only her own voice answered her. Cursing under her breath she approached one of the gray trees and leaned against it, only to have it shatter like glass causing her to fall flat on her back. Gwen cursed again.

"What the heck is this place!" She shouted to the red sky. Once again her voice echoed around her, but something new came back with her voice this time. It sounded like… music.

Sitting bolt upright Gwen tilted her head to the side straining to hear it again. A few moments passed… and there it was! Music. Faint, but there nonetheless. Jumping to her feet again Gwen turned to where she thought the sound was coming from and jogged towards the trees.

Brambles and thorns kept catching on her clothes and scratching her legs, but Gwen pressed on. The music was getting louder now. Gwen could pick up the slow, sad drumming of a guitar. And words. Softly sang and filled with sorrow.

_Dear mom and dad I'm doin' fine…_

_You guys are on my mind…_

_You asked me what I wanted to be_

_And now I think the answer is_

_Plain to see…_

_I wanna be…_

_Famous…_

The words got louder and louder as Gwen stumbled through the trees. Soon she broke into a clearing and gasped at what she saw. A teenage boy was sitting on a stump a few feet in front of her. In his arms he held a guitar slowly strumming it and now humming the tune of the song he just sang. His head was bowed so that his unkempt black hair fell in front of his eyes.

"Uh… hey." Gwen called softly. The boy flinched and looked up at her through his screen of black hair revealing cold, dead jade green eyes void of any emotion. "Are you ok?" Gwen asked slowly approaching the boy. He didn't answer her. He didn't even move.

"Uh… my name's Gwen. What's yours?" She asked brightly stopping in front of him and holding out her hand. The boy stared at her hand for a moment before reaching up with his own hand. But he didn't take her hand in his, he brushed his hair out of his face and stared into her eyes.

"… Name?" he whispered barely audibly. His voice cracked slightly, as if he hadn't used it in a long time.

"Yes. Name. You do have one right?" Gwen asked in a slightly teasing tone. The boy narrowed his eyes, but whether in hostility or confusion Gwen couldn't tell.

"… Don't… remember…" The boy whispered still staring into her eyes. He lowered his head again and resumed his sad strumming of his old beat up guitar. It was then Gwen realized that his fingers were bloody, probably from strumming his guitar. She gasped and took his hand in hers.

"What happened?" She asked staring at his bloody fingers. She cringed however when the boy's head snapped up, a new emotion blazing n his previously dead eyes. Fear.

"There… there were nine." He mumbled beginning to shake slightly.

"Nine? Nine what?" Gwen asked gently.

"There were nine… then, then there was one." He mumbled staring strait ahead at nothing.

"What are you talking about?" She gasped when the boy suddenly clamped her hand in both of his gripping it painfully. He stood up abruptly so that he towered above her, his guitar suddenly shattered into a million pieces causing her to flinch again. Another emotion burned in his eyes now snuffing out the previous fear. Anger.

"There were nine! Then there was one!" He screamed in her face.

"W-What are you talking about?!" Gwen screamed back starting to panic. The boy stiffened suddenly and stared at something behind Gwen that she couldn't see. His face softened slightly after a moment and he loosened his grip on her hand.

"There was nine… he took away eight… then there was one." He whispered drawing a nine on the top of her hand with the blood from his finger. And then, he disappeared. Gwen stared slack jawed at the spot where the boy had once stood, then down at the bloody nine on her right hand.

"Where did you go?! Who are you?!" Gwen shouted looking around frantically. Suddenly the red sky began to leach downward, as if it were dripping blood from the sky, and stained the gray trees red. The redness rolled down the trees in streams and began to pool in the clearing. Gwen felt tears gather in her eyes and collapsed to the reddening ground on her knees clutching her head in her hands.

"What is going on!"

* * *

Duncan woke up with a start the next morning. The sun was just barely shinning through the thick gray clouds that rolled across the sky and it was even colder than the day before. But other than that, something was wrong. Really wrong. Looking around Duncan saw that everything was peaceful. Except that behind him he heard a frantic scratching noise. Sitting up in his sleeping bag Duncan Glanced behind him.

Gwen sat in front of the campfire pit. The fire had long gone out but some of the logs were still smoking. Gwen had her sketch pad in her had and was frantically drawing something. Her hair stuck out in clumps, her eyes were wide and wild, and her lips were moving a mile a minute with no sound coming out. So looked positively insane.

"Gwen?" Duncan asked tiredly rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Blinking he realized he wasn't imagining things. Scrambling to stand up Duncan hurried over and crouched down in front of Gwen. On closer inspection he saw that tears were gliding down her cheeks in clear rivers. Something was _really _wrong. Gwen never cried. And now that he was closer Duncan could hear Gwen whispering to herself.

"There was nine then there was one. There was nine then there was one. There was nine then there was one." She chanted over and over again as her wild eyes darted across the page and her hand frantically drew something.

"Gwen? Gwen are you ok?" Duncan asked nervously. When she didn't respond Duncan began to panic and shook her shoulder slightly. "Gwen! Gwen snap out of it!" He snapped forcefully. Her hand froze in mid draw and she stopped chanting to herself. Looking up at him Gwen blinked rapidly a few times.

"Duncan?" she whispered.

"Gwen what happened?" He asked again. His best friend merely stared at him for a moment before lunging forward and wrapping her arms around his neck sobbing loudly on his shoulder.

"Duncan! I-I had a n-nightmare! It was awful! There was a boy and, and blood and…" she managed to get out through her sobs, the rest incoherent crying. Duncan shook off his surprise and tentatively patted the girls back.

"Uh… there there. It was only a dream." He said awkwardly. This was too weird. Gwen never broke down like this. Not since her dad died years ago. Something must have really upset her, and Duncan was no good at comforting people.

"It felt so real…" Gwen whispered calming down slightly but still clutching Duncan's neck as if he were her lifeline. Glancing down over her shoulder Duncan felt his eyes widen in shock. Her sketchpad lay open and on the page was a boy. He was holding a guitar, but he was hunched over so that his hair fell in his eyes making him look like the Grudge. He was holding his hand out while something dripped from his fingers, blood most likely. The trees around the boy seemed to be dripping to. But that wasn't even the most disturbing thing about the drawing. Something red was smeared all over the page.

"Gwen… what happened?" Duncan whispered, his voice laced with dread. She didn't answer. She had stopped sobbing but was now crying silently and shaking like a leaf. Pulling back slightly Duncan took Gwen's hand in his. He heard Gwen gasp. Her palm was covered in blood, though there was no visible cut on her hand. And turning it over, there, on the top of her right hand, was a nine written in blood.

* * *

**Bwahahahaha! (Hack hack) Uhg... Well I'm home sick today. Gnarly headache und a fever. Bleh. XP! So I at least got the chance to work on this all morning, trying to get this story done as fast as possible. You can probably guess who the three newcomers are by now but just warning you, a few of them are a bit on the OOC side due to insanity. A cookie to whoever can guess who the obvious newcomers are! Other than that the dream might have been a bit overkill, but hey, I live for the darker side of things. ^_^ Now then, for my dramatic questions. Who are these people? Why are they here? And the bloody nine from the dream... What does it all mean?! Review and you might find out more quickly. Now then, I'mma go take a nap. Thanks to those who have reviewed or faved so far. Special thanks to Cartoon Crazed and digimondragonmaster as my first reviewer and first faver. Und finally, happy reading.**

**Silent Assassin**


	4. Chills

****

First off: SpaceCowboy, you earn 2/3 of a cookie for getting 2 out of three right! So close my friend. So close.

**So in this part some of our favorite teens go on a little adventure, and we are more or less introduced to the ghosts of the story. Some of you are asking when Courtney will appear. Well, officially, she'll appear in two more chapters, so almost there! Thanks so much again to those of you who have reviewed or faved my story thus far. It really makes me want to do my best.**

_Thoughts._

_'Ghost speak'_

_Chapter 4: Chills _

Upon seeing the nine on her hand Gwen started to freak out.

"It's still there… It's still there." She mumbled shaking even more. Duncan was just plain flat out confused. _What the heck is she talking about? _He asked himself watching as Gwen shook in front of him.

"Whaz tha'?" The sleepy voice of Tyler asked sticking his head out of the tent. Yawning he blinked the sleep from his eyes. "What's goin on?" He asked yawning again.

"I don't know, something is really wrong with Gwen." Duncan answered trying to sooth the Goth again. Snapping awake Tyler stumbled out of the tent and crouched down beside Duncan staring at Gwen worriedly.

"What? What happened?" Tyler asked seeing the blood on her hand.

"I don't know. I woke up and Gwen was out here, sketching that." He answered pointing to the sketchbook. "Started going on about a nightmare…" Tyler glanced down at the page and recoiled slightly.

"Whoa…" Was all he said and inched away from the book as if the boy were about to leap off the page and eat him.

"Wake the others up. Now. We have to do something." Duncan ordered. Tyler nodded curtly and stood to awake the last three members of their group. Soon all five of them stood huddled around Gwen quickly rubbing the sleep from their eyes.

"What the heck happened to her?!" Harold asked. Duncan repeated the story of waking up to find Gwen in her currant traumatized state.

"She snapped out of it for a minute before she saw her hand." He finished. Bridgette crouched down beside him and started to gently rub her best friends back trying to calm her down. Gwen was still shaking and staring down at her hands in her lap.

"She's gone into shock. I've seen this dozens of times when surfers get attacked by sharks." She said thoughtfully.

"Then can you do something for her?" Harold asked nervously. Bridgette considered it for a moment before nodding her head.

"Usually we would have to take her to a hospital or something, but that's hours away. This was a camp once right? There's got to be a medical tent around here or something. Hopefully there will be the medicine I need there."

"Ok. Here's what we'll do: I'll stay here and try to keep Gwen calm. DJ, go get the boat ready. The sooner we get back the better. Tyler, Bridgette, you two go look for the medical supplies. Hopefully there are still some around here somewhere. Harold you pack up camp. Were leaving when Bridgette finds the meds." The four of them nodded and set to work on their assigned tasks. Tyler and Bridgette hurried off towards the campgrounds to try and find the medical tent, Harold set to work on packing up their things, and DJ ran down towards the docks to make sure they were set to sail.

"Come on Gwen… Let's get you cleaned up." Duncan whispered rubbing her back like Bridgette had. Gwen didn't respond, but she let Duncan gently help her to her feet. "Just follow me, ok? We'll get you fixed up…" Again Gwen didn't respond and silently followed Duncan towards the campgrounds. They were all so engrossed in their tasks that none of them noticed four figures watching them from a distance…

* * *

_As the group of teens dispersed across the campgrounds I dragged a hand down my face in exasperation, groaning at the unfairness of it all._

'_Well. That went well.' The girl beside me deadpaned. _

'_No kidding…' I muttered under my breath._

'_What now?' A voice asked dryly. I glared at the bored looking boy over my shoulder._

'_Well we can't just let them leave.' I huffed crossing my arms over my chest. _

'_So…?' He prompted. _

'_So! We stick to the plan, no matter how badly Trent messed up.' I answered angrily._

'_And girl did he mess up big time!' The girl beside me agreed._

'_But dude, what if they run into the Banshee?' The other boy beside me asked nervously._

'_No doubt they will.'_

'_So…?' _

'_Uhg! Just do as I say.' I answered before backing up into the forest behind us._

'… _But she didn't say anything.' Shrugging the other three disappeared into the forest as well._

* * *

It didn't take long at all to find the medical tents. Not to far from the camp, a ways down towards the beach, they found a large green tent with a red plus sign on it.

"There it is!" Bridgette cheered seeing the large tent. She and Tyler hurried on and burst through the flaps of the tent taking a moment to take in their surroundings. Rows of beds were lined up against either side of the tent. Tall cabinets filled with all sorts of things ranging from gauzes to needles stood near the entrance as well as a sink. Stepping further in Tyler looked around with curious eyes and approached the nearest bed. Looking down at it he frowned.

"What is it?" Bridgette asked walking to stand beside him. Tyler silently motioned towards the bed. The sheets were ruffled, as if someone had slept in the bed recently, but it was covered in a thick coat of dust. But the thing that caught their eyes was the dark red stain on the pillow.

"What do you think happened?" Tyler whispered. Bridgette shook her head and approached the cabinets.

"I don't know and I don't want to know. Help me look around." Bridgette said briskly starting to scan the shelves with a determined look on her face. Tyler shook himself slightly and walked up behind her.

"What exactly are we looking for?" He asked scratching his head thoughtfully. Bridgette went rigid and sighed.

"Uh… I forgot." The mumbled. Tyler sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Great." He grumbled.

"I'll know it when I see it! Just… stand outside or something." Bridgette said briskly scanning the shelves again while shooing him away. Shrugging Tyler left her to prowl the shelves and went to go investigate the other beds in the infirmary.

Bridgette looked through the pills on the shelf knowing the medicine she was looking for was some sort of pill or another. Narrowing her eyes she shuffled through the rows of bottles.

_Damn. Where is it… What is it… When was the last time these things were organized? _Bridgette asked herself as she racked her brain trying to remember the name of the medicine other lifeguards had used on surfers before. Sudden an intense chill wafted over her causing a shiver to run down her spine.

'_Who knows bra? No ones been here for years after all.' _Bridgette jumped slightly.

"Tyler… did you hear that?" Bridgette asked looking over at Tyler with a nervous expression. Tyler glanced back up at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Huh? I didn't hear anything." He answered before returning to his investigation with the beds. Bridgette shook her head and returned to scanning the shelves.

_Focus Bridge! Gwen needs this medicine… that, whatever its called, has got to be here somewhere! _She scolded herself.

'_He brought us here ya know. He tried to help us.' _Bridgette froze once more. In her minds eye she could see the silhouette of a person, obviously male. The silhouette raised a hand towards her in greeting. _'Sup.'_

… _What the _hell?!

* * *

Duncan and Gwen had only made it halfway across the campgrounds when a sudden scream froze them in their tracks.

"DJ?!" Duncan called whipping around to face the docks. Across the campgrounds he could see DJ, on his knees, sobbing into his hands.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!" His friend screamed to the heavens. Duncan felt his jaw drop in shock as one coherent thought flitted across his mind.

_Oh… shit!_

* * *

Harold sat on one of the many stumps in front of the campfire pit tapping his foot impatiently. He had packed up camp in record time and wanted to get the hell off the island. Other than that it was cold, and it looked like it was about to rain. Though the others had only left a minute or two ago, so he steeled himself to be patient.

"Man this place freaks me out…" he mumbled to himself. He couldn't stand silence for very long. "Wonder where those two people from last night went…" He added in an after thought. Shivering violently he burrowed deeper into his coat. "And what is up with this cold! It's not even winter yet." He snapped through chattering teeth. The cold wind swirled around him for a second before abruptly veering off to the left causing Harold to raise an eyebrow at the air.

"What the…" He muttered looking off towards the left of him. The cold air swirled around him again bringing with it a voice.

'_Follow me…' _A feminine voice whispered in Harold's ear, the freezing air numbing the left side of his head slightly. Without thinking much of it Harold stood up, as if in a trance, and followed the voice on the wind.

"Where are we going?" He asked absently watching as the leaves danced with the talking wind across his path. The wind giggled, more like chuckled actually.

_'You'll see…'_ Smiling dumbly Harold hurried his pace slightly. The wind, leaves, and the cold led him along a path that skirted the edge of the forest. And after a minute or two of brisk walking he came to a halt, staring at what lay before him with wide surprised eyes.

"Whoa… Cool."

* * *

Bridgette stared strait ahead of her with wide, confused eyes.

_Who… who are you? What's going on? _She asked herself.

'_Name, names, names. Is that all you people care about?' _The silhouette tsked. Bridgette shook her head forcibly.

_Focus Bridge… stop talking to yourself. _She scolded.

'_Chill dudette. I'm not here to cause trouble. I'm here to tell you.'_

_Tell me what? G-Get out of my head! _Hearing Bridgette's moan Tyler looked up from one of the beds to see her standing in front of the cabinet and staring at nothing, a dumbstruck look in her eyes.

"Bridgette?" Tyler called feeling a little concerned. She didn't respond.

'_Tell you what happened that day. What happened here. The big one… Yeah I remember, he tried to save us. He tried to help us by giving us these little pills that made us hurl, but it was already in our system. He couldn't get it out. He tried though.' _

"Get out of my head!" Bridgette screamed doubling over and clutching her head. An instant later Tyler was at her side staring at her worriedly.

"Bridge? Bridgette what's wrong? What happened?" He asked frantically. Bridgette stayed silent.

'_Aw come on man calm down! Look, I'll go see! Stop freaking out or she'll have my head!' _Bridgette screamed again. _'Ok ok fine I'll go!' _The silhouette cried throwing his hands up in defeat. _'Just remember what I told you or I'll be in major trouble. Oh, and also…' _Bridgette went rigid when the unnatural cold swirled around her once more, and she absently noticed that Tyler felt it to seeing the goosebumps spring up on his hands. Bridgette own hand suddenly became froze, as if she had stuck it in a bucket of ice for a long time. Her hand moved of her own accord reaching up to the shelves on the cabinet near the top and plucked one of the bottles off. _'I think this is the one you were lookin for. Ciao!' _Bridgette gaped at the bottle in her hand. The freezing cold sensation had left with the voice, but her hand was still so numb she could barely move her fingers. Tyler continued to frown at her worriedly ready in case she had another spazz attack. And seeing as she only stared at the bottle she had picked up Tyler gently took it from her and read the label.

"Inderal… is that what we need Bridgette?" Tyler asked scanning the bottle's label for anything else. Only the name was written on it. Bridgette was silent for a moment before she snapped out of her little trance and nodded without looking at him. She cradled her hand to her stomach and began to shake violently.

"Bridgette? What's wrong?" Tyler asked gently taking her hand in his. It was ice cold. "What the… Ya cold Bridge?" He asked trying to catch her eye. Bridgette merely nodded. Tyler frowned and, letting go of her freezing hand, he shrugged off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. Bridgette pulled his jacket tighter around her and managed to smile gratefully at him. Ignoring his own cold with his loss of his jacket Tyler draped an arm over her shoulders and led her out of the medical tents.

"Come on… Let's get you back to the others. Maybe have to take some of that Inderal to." Tyler said softly. Bridgette simply nodded again and continued to shiver. Sighing Tyler took one last look at the medical tents before leading Bridgette back to the campgrounds, the silhouette smiling and waving after them.

'_Mission accomplished dudette.'_

'_Uhg. Right.'_

* * *

Duncan came running up behind DJ dragging still shocked Gwen behind him and stared slack jawed at the docks.

"What the hell happened?" Duncan asked in disbelief.

"How… How could the entire boat just _disappear_?!" DJ cried instead of answering him. DJ's boat, their only mode of transportation off the island, had disappeared without a trace. The docks were empty.

"I think the question is how could we not have noticed it disappear before? I mean you can clearly see the docks from here." Duncan answered thoughtfully.

"My dad is goanna _kill _me!" DJ wailed falling forward and pounding the ground like a three year old in a tantrum. Rolling his eyes Duncan grabbed the back of his friend's jacket and hauled him to his feet, not an easy task seeing as DJ was a whole head taller than him.

"Ok, focus DJ! Get a hold of yourself! Your dad is the last thing we need to worry about right now. How did the boat disappear?" Duncan asked sternly.

"How the heck should I know?!" DJ sniveled.

"You have the keys don't you?"

"Of coarse I have the keys! I never leave them in the boat, even if were on a deserted island. Which, by the way, isn't very deserted after all!"

"We know that DJ, now calm down! We don't need two panic ridden people on our hands." As if on cue Tyler came jogging into their line of vision with a scared looking Bridgette in tow.

"Hey guys, we found the medicine." Tyler announced handing Duncan the bottle of pills. Duncan merely glanced at the bottle before looking back up at Bridgette.

"What happened?" He asked fearfully. Tyler frowned and turned to Bridgette who was still shaking and staring at nothing, similar to Gwen's state.

"I don't know man. She was looking around the medical tents when she started freaking out and screaming. She hasn't said a word since we left." He answered. Duncan groaned pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"Great. That's not even the worst thing, look." Duncan said waving towards the docks. Tyler glanced over and the docks and gasped.

"Where'd the boat go?"

"We were just discussing that. We have absolutely no idea where the boat went, or how it could have gone anywhere for that matter seeing as we still have the keys." Tyler turned to DJ with a questioning look.

"_Do _you still have the keys?" He asked. DJ actually looked insulted.

"Of coarse I do. They're right here in my-" DJ answered sticking his hand in his jacket pocket, only to withdraw it empty handed. "… Pocket. Huh… Wait, OMG! I've been robbed!" DJ shouted frantically searching himself for the boat keys. Duncan and Tyler both face palmed in unison while Bridgette and Gwen smiled slightly. Well, that was a good sign on their part.

"Are you sure you didn't drop them in the tent or something?" Tyler asked hopefully.

"Positive."

"Well who could have taken them then?"

"Maybe it was those two from last night."

"I don't think so." Duncan cut in with a wave of his hand. "They disappeared just as quickly as they arrived and I know for a fact they didn't come back."

"How?"

"I slept outside last night. And as you both now I'm a light sleeper, years of practice running from cops and whatnot. They didn't come back."

"Well it's not like they just got up and walked away!" Duncan opened his mouth to say something, before a frantic shouting behind them cut him off.

"Hey guys! Guys! You'll never guess what I found!" Turning they saw Harold running towards them shouting and waving his hands above his head like the idiot that he was. When he got closer to the group he tried to slow down but only ended up tripping over himself and landing face first in the dirt at Duncan's feet. A second later he jumped back up however looking completely unfazed. "Like I said I found a- wait, where's the boat?" Harold asked staring at the barren dock. Duncan waved the question off.

"Later. What did you find that's so amazing?" He asked cocking a questioning eyebrow at the nerd. Harold regained his excitement in a flash.

"Oh, right! So get this, I was sitting around the campfire pit waiting for you guys to get back and I was thinking 'man its really cold out here, I hope we leave soon' when all of a sudden it got really cold, like really cold! Then I was looking around when I thought I heard voices and-"

"Just spit it out Harold!" Duncan snapped feeling his patience lessen by the second. Harold still looked ecstatic though.

"I found a graveyard!" that earned a stunned silence from his listeners.

"… A graveyard?" DJ repeated fearfully. Harold nodded.

"Well not a graveyard exactly. It wasn't all fancy or anything, more like a burial site or a memorial with a few headstones."

"Where did you find it?" Duncan asked curiously. Harold turned to point towards the forest.

"Near the edge in a clearing. A voice led me there." Bridgette and Gwen looked interested at that. Another good sign that they were snapping out of their… state.

"What kind of voice?" Tyler asked curiously.

"Dunno. It just said 'follow me', so I did. I think it might have been one of the ghosts."

"I thought you didn't believe in ghosts." DJ pointed out with a frown. Harold shrugged.

"Hey, even _I'm _wrong sometimes. It's not every day you hear a voice on the wind that leads you to a graveyard."

"Ok, this I got to see." Duncan said with a smirk.

"B-But what about the boat? And the girls!" DJ exclaimed.

"I still don't think those guys from last night took it, but they're the only people on the island besides us. Our best chance at finding the boat and getting off this island is to find them, and a graveyard is as good a place as any to start since we don't know where to look." The group pondered this for a moment before nodding in agreement. Looking over at the girls Duncan continued.

"DJ take Bridgette and Gwen to the infirmary they found and keep an eye on them. They're still to freaked out to do much of anything right now. Oh, and don't forget to give them some pills." He instructed tossing the bottle to DJ. "Harold will take me and Tyler to this graveyard and from there we'll look for the guys from before. Agreed?"

"Right." The guys answered in unison and the girls managed a tiny nod.

"Ok. Let's go then." DJ coaxed Bridgette into leading him to the infirmary while Harold took Tyler and Duncan back up to the campfire pit.

"Come on, it's right over there." Harold said motioning towards a clump of bushes off to the side of the campfire pit. Duncan unconsciously nodded in approval. It was a good looking hiding place. You wouldn't notice it unless you were looking for it, and behind the bushes was a well-worn path leading off towards the forest. Walking briskly like he had before Harold hurried across the campfire pit over the bushes and back on the path once more.

"How far away is this graveyard of yours anyway?" Duncan asked as he followed Harold down the path. It was like going through a tunnel almost, with dark trees rising up on either side of them leaving little room to move on the narrow trail.

"Not to far really. And like I said it's not really a cemetery, just a clearing with a few headstones. A burial ground." Harold corrected matter-of-factly. The green haired punk resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Whatever." But sticking true to his words they only walked for a few minutes skirting the very edge of the forest before suddenly plunging into it.

"And viola! There it is." Harold announced feeling proud of himself. It looked just like Harold had described it. A wide clearing in the forest with simple tombstones lined up next to each other in a neat row, eight to be exact. And on each tombstones was a bouquet of flowers identical to the ones that…

"Hey! It's them!"

* * *

**Whew. Cliffhangers here, cliffhangers there. Hope you guys didn't fall over. XD! So this chapter felt kinda sloppy and rushed to me. That's what I get for trying to type at 2 in the morning. -__- Well I cleaned it up best I could. I think it's acceptable. Like it said in the beggining the ghosts are more or less introduced here. (Less probably) I'm still trying to keep ya guessing for as long as I can. But don't worry, everything will be revealed very soon. You'll even figure out what the heck is wrong with Bridgette and Gwen. Ah, one last thing. Bridgette and Tyler WON'T be a couple in this. They're just really cose friends sharing a tender moment I assure you. Reviews is whats I cravezes... Und if you don't feed me, I'll eat you instead. X_X..... **

**Silent Assassin**


	5. Psychos Abound!

**Whew. Been a while since I last updated. Halloween has long since passed but this story is still alive. I got writers block for the longest time so this chapter was kinda written bit by bit so it might get a bit sketchy at certain points. Now we finally learn the identity of those two people and we learn part of what has happened on this island.**

**

* * *

**

_Chapter 5: Psychos Abound!_

"What?" Duncan asked looking towards where Tyler was pointing. The two from last night were standing at the edge of the clearing staring at the three of them. Like before the boy looked angry while the girl looked nervous. "Hey! We got a question for ya!" Duncan called storming into the clearing and towards the two teens.

"I would assume you would." The boy said calmly keeping his narrowed eyes trained on Duncan. Duncan stalked up to the boy and grabbed the front of his jacket yanking him up off his feet so that they were eye level.

"Who are you?" Duncan snarled.

"Who are _you_?" The boy countered.

"Look man, I don't have time to play games with you. Two of my friends are sick and we need to get back to the mainland, but seeing as our boat is _missing _we seem to be stuck here." The boy had the nerve, not to mention the guts, to grin at Duncan from ear to ear as if their boat vanishing was the most amusing thing in the world to him.

"Well. That's unfortunate. What do you want me to do about it?" The boy asked still grinning. Duncan had just about enough and raised his fist menacingly, poised to strike.

"As far as we know you two are the only ones on this island besides us, so you better start answering some questions, before I rearrange your face!" The boy's grin dropped immediately to be replaced with his previous glare.

"I told you to leave, didn't I?" He stated icily. "I warned you. And now looked what happened. They've trapped you here, just like the rest of us."

"Who is this _they _you keep talking about?"

"Calm down, both of you." Duncan switched his glare from the boy to the girl who had spoken. She was staring at the boy with a pleading expression. "Just tell them. They're in the same boat we are in." She whispered, though Duncan could still hear her.

"Hardly." The boy whispered back. Looking back at Duncan he continued. "So you want answers, do ya?" Duncan stared at him suspiciously before nodding slowly. The boy sighed, as if he knew what his answer was going to be and didn't like it. "Fine. Though I can't guarantee you'll like what you'll hear. I think introductions come first. So, who are you?" Duncan glanced back at Tyler and Harold who shrugged and nodded. The punk let go of the boy's jacket letting him drop back to the ground.

"Fine. I'm Duncan, that's my friend Tyler, and my annoying cousin Harold." He said jerking his head towards the two behind him. "We came here to look around for Halloween." The boy nodded, as if approving his answer.

"My name is Cody. She's my friend Beth." The boy, Cody answered, tilting his head towards the girl who waved shyly. "And we've been trapped here for three years." Duncan, along with Harold and Tyler, stared at him with shocked expressions.

"Three _years_?" Harold asked in amazement.

"More or less." Beth answered with a small shrug.

"We haven't really been trapped here though. At least, not Beth and me. Not like the others." Cody added sullenly.

"What do you mean by that?" Tyler asked. Cody shook his head.

"Follow us. There's something we have to do first." He answered turning away from their little group.

"What could you possibly need to do that's so important on a deserted island?" Harold asked skeptically.

"In case you haven't noticed this island isn't very deserted at all." Beth answered as Cody bent over to pick something up from behind a bush.

"Well there are you two." Tyler pointed out. Beth looked a little surprised.

"Well yes, but there are also the other survivors."

"Survivors? What survivors?"

"Follow us and you might find out." Cody answered standing up with several bags in his hands. All of them were filled to the brim with food, mostly things like bread or fruit or canned stuff. "Chris can probably answer some of your questions better than I can." Duncan exchanged annoyed looks with Tyler and Harold.

"And who might Chris be?" Harold asked.

"Like I said, follow us and you might find out." Cody handed half of the bags to Beth and together the two of them left the clearing. Duncan turned back to his companions.

"So do we follow them?" Tyler asked in a slightly nervous tone.

"We don't have much of a choice." Duncan answered bitterly. "We need to find out what the heck is going on on this island. Besides you heard what those two said. Something big must have happened for them to have been trapped here for three years, not to mention the fact that there's a graveyard five feet away from us. I thought the story my brother told me about this place was made up, so I don't know about you guys but they officially have me curious."

"What about the boat? And the girls?" Harold asked.

"Cody and Beth will take us to the other people on the island. Maybe they'll know what happened to the boat."

"But what if they're lying?" Tyler pointed out.

"This place isn't very big. We could probably find the boat on our own.

"Hey! You three coming or what?" Cody called. He sounded pretty far away already. Glancing back at the small burial ground one last time Duncan hurried in the direction the two teens had left with Tyler and Harold hurrying after him.

* * *

Duncan Tyler and Harold managed to catch up to Cody and Beth quickly enough. They walked in silence for about a half an hour before coming upon an old rundown cabin similar to the ones back at camp. Only this one was like ten times bigger. Surrounding the cabin was a sea of white bell shaped flowers that the guys were careful to avoid stepping on, seeing as both Cody and Beth carefully picked their way through the flowers.

The group quietly entered the old cabin glancing around curiously. The place looked like it hadn't been cleaned in ages, not that they expected it would be. Dust covered everything in thick sheets, half of the windows were broken, and giant cobwebs seemed to be in every corner. All in all it looked like your average haunted house. All they need was a skeleton to jump out of a closet and maybe a candelabra or two. Plus the placed reeked of rotten food.

"Chris! Where are you?" Cody called approaching the huge staircase that led to the second floor of the cabin. Harold had wandered off and was now poking his head through different doorways. Tyler had enough sense to stay near the group. And with the cloudy sky not very much light filtered into the cabin so Beth was shining a flashlight around.

"Chriiiiiis! We brought your food!" the nerdy girl called.

"I'm coming I'm coming! Yeesh!" A grouchy voice snapped as a figure appeared by the top of the stairs. Not exactly a skeleton, but he did have a candelabra.

A man stood at the top of the stairs staring down at the teens with an obvious look of distaste. He must be Chris. The candelabra he held in his hand illuminated Chris' face. He had unhealthy shallow, almost yellowish skin. Large bags under his eyes showed that the man didn't get much sleep and his hair was an unruly mess. He wore a tattered brown cloak and ripped tan jeans. He also seemed to be missing his shoes.

"Who are they?" Chris asked glaring warily at Duncan and his friends as he made his way down the stairs. Instead of answering him Beth gently grabbed Chris' elbow and led him through one of the doors with Cody following after her. Hesitantly Duncan also followed them.

The door led to a large kitchen where there were many more candles burning bathing the kitchen in a soft glow. Beth had sat Chris down on one of the stools at the counter while Cody was currently unpacking their many bags of food.

"When was the last time you got some sleep?" Beth tsked as she fussed over the man trying to tidy his hair but to no avail. Chris shrugged and looked over at Duncan.

"Who are they?" He asked again.

"They're from the outside. Got here about an hour after we came back last night." Cody answered without looking up from his currant task of filling a pot with water. Chris looked up at Beth curiously.

"The outside?" He repeated slowly. Beth nodded. Chris glanced back over at Duncan narrowing his eyes angrily. "Why? What are they doing here? Why don't they leave?"

"They took their boat." Cody answered. He was messing around with the stove now.

"Oh." That seemed to make perfect sense to Chris. Shooing Beth away the man stood slowly and approached Duncan. "Why did you come here?" He asked curiously tilting his head to the side.

"We came to look around for Halloween." Harold answered timidly.

"And they _let _you?" Chris gasped in amazement.

"Ok, enough! Who is this 'they' already?" Duncan snapped. "You said you would start talking."

"We did and we will." Beth stated. After Chris got up she had started to rummage around through the many cabinets in the large kitchen.

"First of all, what exactly do you know about this island?" Cody asked. Chris had returned to his stool and was currently idly tracing something on the counter.

"Not much, just a story I heard once." Duncan answered with a shrug.

"And that story led you here?" The punk nodded in yes. "Well tell us the story and I'll tell you how much is true." So Duncan proceeded to tell Cody and Beth the ghost story his brother had told him.

"Poisoned!" Chris exclaimed angrily. He snorted indignantly. "Please. They weren't just poisoned I'll tell you that much. And I'll tell you now that I didn't kill them! Sure I was a little nasty to the campers, sometimes downright cruel, but I wouldn't _kill _the poor kids!"

"Calm down Chris. No one is accusing you of anything." Beth said soothingly. During the story she had found a can opener and popped open one of the cans then dumped it in the pot of water over the stove. Now Cody was stirring the pot as gazing at the teens curiously.

"Well part of your story is true. You remember the graveyard right?" At Duncan Tyler and Harold's nods Cody continued. "Well three years ago this place was in fact where they filmed a reality TV show called Total Drama Island. And three years ago one of the remaining campers snapped and killed the others."

"But like Chris said, the murderer didn't just poison them." Beth added grimly.

"You mean you never figured out who killed them?" Tyler gasped.

"No. Just like the story said, no one ever figured out who did it." Cody grabbed a bowl and a spoon from one of the cabinets. Pouring the contents of the pot into the bowl Cody plopped it down in front of Chris. After a quick thank you the man began to eat to soup Cody made for him.

"What does it have to do with you being stuck here for three years?" Duncan asked.

"Just like the story said." Chris answered simply.

"The spirits of the dead campers are still here." Beth elaborated seeing their slightly confused looks.

"What? You mean there are actually… ghosts here?" Harold gasped.

"They would be the 'they' were always talking about. How do you think you found the graveyard in the first place?"

"We're getting ahead of ourselves." Cody cut in with a wave of his hand. "Let's start on the day after they died. After the remaining contestants died their family and the cops came to the island. Their families had come to get their bodies but the RCMP sent but back home pretty quickly. Said they had to keep the bodies for investigation. So, the families left, and the cops began their investigation. The campers that were previously voted off like Beth and I weren't aloud to leave the island and had to stay for questioning. They were only one day into investigating the island when the weird stuff started happening."

Duncan exchanged bewildered looks with Tyler. "What sort of weird stuff?"

"The boats disappeared first." Chris answered without looking up from his bowl.

"The cops thought one of us did it. So now they couldn't leave the island, and we couldn't leave either." Beth added.

"Then the fog came."

"Right Chris, the fog came. And not just your average type of fog. This stuff was so thick you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Not to mention the fact that… Well how would you describe it Cody?"

"The fog was made from evil." Cody answered easily. " That much was certain. It was the weirdest thing… It was like a type of gas or something. The cops would get lost in the fog and loose their mind trying to find their way back to camp. They would hear a voice you see, a voice that said they would take them back. Instead the voices led them strait off Mt. Wawanakwa into the shark infested waters."

"How do you know this stuff?" Harold asked.

"Because the same thing happened to me." Chris answered. Suddenly he sounded very small, so uncertain, like a lost child. "Me and Chef… we were heading back here when we got lost in the fog. We followed the voice, said it'd lead us back. I recognized it to! I knew the voice, it was one of them. I thought they were alive. We thought the voice was leading us back to camp but… Well Chef fell off first. That was enough to snap me out of it. The fog cleared and I ran all the way back here. Haven't really left since." During his tale Chris had started to shake. "I'm scared to. If I leave they'll come for me, I know they will! They'll come and kill me to for all the bad things I put them through!"

"It's ok Chris." Beth whispered lightly patting his shoulder.

"What exactly do you remember about the day when the… 'campers' were poisoned?" Duncan asked unfazed by the man's sudden show of emotion. Chris whimpered and grabbed fistfuls of his hair looking about ready to pull it out.

"Oh, don't do that Chris. Come on, let's go brush your hair." Beth said pulling him off the stool. "We'll make it look all pretty again, just like it was before. I even got your favorite hair gel." With that she led the host out of the kitchen, Cody staring after them sadly.

"Chris never fully recovered when the campers and Chef died. None of us really did." Cody explained. "We all lost a bit of our sanity over the years. Being stuck on a deserted island with no TV can do that to a teen. Beth is the only one who can calm him down these days."

"How come you and Beth seem so sane then?" Tyler asked. Cody shrugged.

"I think its because they let us leave every now and then."

"Why?"

"For one reason or another the spirits wont let the other survivors leave, but they wont kill them in the fog either. Oh yeah, the survivors are the other campers who were voted off and were at a different part of the island when the others were killed. They mostly stay in Playa De Loser now. But after a while we all started to run out of food. Beth and I were walking on the beach a few weeks after the last cop fell off Mt. Wawanakwa when we saw one of the missing boats at the docks. We were going to head back and tell the others we could leave the island, but the fog came, and we found ourselves back at the docks."

"So the ghosts wanted you to leave?" Harold asked.

"I'm getting to that. We managed to get back to the mainland without sinking ourselves. At first we were just going to go home, forget about this whole ordeal. But something stopped us."

"What?" Cody shrugged again.

"Dunno. Our conscious maybe. We couldn't just leave the others to starve back on the island. So we grabbed some food and headed back.

"So the ghosts let you leave to get food for the others?"

"Yep. Every few weeks the ghosts let us leave on three conditions. One, we have to come back. If we don't I don't know what will happen but I can tell you now, it wont be pretty. Two we can only leave for a short amount of time and are only aloud to get food and nothing else. And three we can't let anyone know we're there. That means no friends, no family, and no cops."

"But why do the ghosts let you and Beth leave and no one else?" Duncan asked skeptically.

"I don't know. I think its because when the last cop died they didn't need the dead campers bodies anymore, so Beth and I buried them and gave them the best tombstones we could which were pretty much just some big rocks with their names carved on them. Because of that I think they trust us. Besides it wouldn't do us any good to tell someone that we're still on the island. The fog surrounds the waters at all times. Nothing could navigate through it, and if they tried, they would find themselves smashed to pieces on the rocks. After a while people gave up trying to come get us. That or they forgot about us."

"If the fog surrounds this place at all times then how were we able to get here?" Duncan asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing." The two of them stared at each other for a minute, neither saying anything. Just staring at the other questioningly.

"Uh… Were do you and Beth get the money to get all this food?" Harold piped up motioning to the other bags on the counter. Cody finally broke eye contact with Duncan and looked over at the bags.

"Oh, we don't pay for them. Are you guys aware of the community center in your town?" At the their nods Cody continued. "Well the people there believe Beth and I run a homeless shelter for teens, which in a way is true. So every few weeks we go there to pick up some donated supplies."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Well Beth is taking care of Chris and I have to take this stuff to the others. Your other friends are still back at the camp right?" Duncan nodded. "If I were you I'd get them out of there. Quick. For whatever reason the spirits let you in and they haven't killed you yet, but they still don't like us hanging around the camp. They still stay there."

"Then what were you and Beth doing hanging around there last night?"

"When we got back Beth and I went to go pay our respects to the spirits graves just like we do every time we come back. When we saw your boat coming in we decided to stick around and make sure you didn't cause any trouble. We figured you were just looking around, but when you didn't leave we decided to try and scare you off."

"Big load of help that was!" Harold muttered under his breath. Duncan rolled his eyes at his cousin.

"You and your friends can stay here for a while." Cody continued apparently not hearing Harold. "We might be able to figure out what the spirits want from you to have let you in and let you live. If we don't, well… welcome to our island." He said with a smile.

"Whatever. Come on guys." Duncan said as he exited the kitchen.

"Can you find your way back?" Cody asked following them to the front door.

"We'll manage." Harold answered. Cody nodded curtly and headed up the stairs while Duncan and his friends headed back to the camp.

"Now what?" Tyler asked once the giant cabin was hidden behind the trees.

"You heard the man. There are evil ghosts running around who have stolen our boat and we can't leave until we figure out what they want from us." Duncan answered.

"You mean you actually believe them?"

"I don't see why not. After all that _is _why we came here Tyler. Besides we don't really have much of a choice but to go back." Tyler scowled and opened his mouth to say something, but the sudden loud clap of thunder drowned his words out. "Plus it looks like its goanna rain." Duncan added pointing skyward.

And of coarse two minutes later it began to pour. Duncan and Harold pulled hoods tightly over their heads to avoid getting their hair wet. Bridgette still had Tyler's jacket so he covered his head with the back of his shirt. The three of them sprinted back to camp. Once they got back Tyler took the lead and led the guys to the medical tents he and Bridgette found. By the time the boys dashed into the tent they were completely soaked and their shoes and pants were caked with mud.

"We're back." Harold announced shaking his wet body like a dog. Tyler jumped to the side to avoid the water and glared at Harold.

"You guys were gone for a long time. I was starting to worry." DJ called from where he sat on one of the beds. Duncan's eyes immediately sought out the girls. Bridgette and Gwen sat side by side on the bed next to DJ. Both were still shivering but not as badly as before.

"We got a bit… sidetracked." Duncan stated walking up to the beds.

"How could you get sidetracked for three hours at a graveyard?"

"We were gone for three hours?" Tyler asked bewildered. DJ nodded. "Whoa. Weird. Felt like one."

"We didn't just find a graveyard. We found those two people from last night." Duncan said. DJ's eyes lit up. "How are the girls?"

"Fine. Did they take the boat?" DJ asked waving off Duncan's concern for Gwen and Bridgette. Duncan glanced up at Tyler who shrugged and nodded. They then proceeded to tell DJ what had happened when they reached the graveyard.

"You mean that story you told us last night was actually _true_?" DJ gasped. Duncan nodded. "You don't seriously believe them do you? There can't really be ghosts around here, or we would have seen them!"

"Oh, they're here." They guys looked over at Bridgette, surprised to see her staring at them with an intense gaze. "I saw one. Or at least I think I saw him… he was definitely there though. He helped me find the medicine."

"But after that you kinda spazzed out Bridge." Tyler pointed out.

"Yeah. You've been in shock for a long time." DJ added.

"You'd be in shock to if you met a ghost!" The blond surfer snapped. Gwen nodded in agreement.

"You saw one to?" Harold asked. Gwen nodded again. DJ threw his hands up in exasperation.

"I can't believe you guys! You're worrying about ghosts when we _should _be focusing on finding my boat!"

"Relax DJ. The girls look like they're getting better so now there's no rush to get back home."

"But we do need to get back soon. School starts in two days." Harold pointed out.

"Then I suggest we find out what the ghosts want with us soon." Duncan glanced around the large tent. It was pretty cold and it would only get colder in the middle of the night. Besides that the tent was already leaking in various places. "Right now we should probably head back to Chris' cabin. It'll be dark soon and even that rundown piece of crap looks like a better place to spend the night then in here." Tyler and Harold nodded in their agreement. "Ok. Let's head back."

"Right." Pulling their jackets tighter around themselves Duncan and his group exited the medical tents and made a mad dash for the camp. When they were about to head up to the campfire pits to take the path leading to the graveyard Duncan suddenly froze dead in his tracks nearly slipping and falling in the slick mud. Tyler saw him stop and stopped as well.

"Come on Duncan!" He called over the loudness of the pouring rain and the thunder.

"Tyler, take the others back to the cabin! I'll catch up!" Duncan called back looking over at the abandoned camp. Tyler didn't bother asking. Sometimes Duncan just liked to go off on his own. So he turned and kept running through the rain with the others following after him.

Duncan didn't know why, but he suddenly felt compelled to investigate the campgrounds. They hadn't looked around since they arrived yesterday and Duncan was curious. Besides he might find something that related to the dead campers and what happened to them. He ran to the nearest building, which happened to be one of the cabins the campers had stayed in. Carefully running up the slick steps Duncan paused on the porch. There were two doors leading into the cabin. He chose the one on the left and went inside.

The cabin looked just as bad on the inside as it was on the outside. Holes in the roof were letting the water leak in and dust covered everything in the room in thick layers. The cabin wasn't much. A few bunk beds pushed up against the wall and a dresser as well as a closet was the only things inside. Duncan opened the closet first. Nothing but a few shirts were inside. The same went for the dresser.

Investigating the beds next Duncan climbed on top of the nearest one. On the top bunk of the nearest bed Duncan found something interesting that wasn't a shirt.

A broken guitar.

The thing was snapped in half only being held together by a single string that wasn't broken. Running his fingers over the guitar Duncan felt small indents in the wood. Dusting some of the dust off he saw the letters T.E. carved near the top.

"T.E.? Must be initials." Duncan said to himself. Seeing as the rest of the beds were empty Duncan left the room and entered the door on the right. The same sight met him. Bunk beds, a dresser, and a closet. But there were more interesting things on the beds in this room. A book here, some makeup there. He figured this must have been the girl's cabin. He picked up a brush from one of the beds and examined it for initials like the guitar. He found nothing.

Suddenly a strong breeze blew in from the broken window bringing with it an intense chill. Dropping the brush to the floor with a clang Duncan wrapped his arms around himself.

"Damn it's cold!" He growled under his breath. He was rubbing his arms trying to get them to warm up when he heard it.

'_Get. Out.' _An angry feminine voice whispered in his ear. Straitening up Duncan glanced around the room.

"What? Who's there?" He called out angrily.

'_Get. Out.' _The voice repeated loudly.

The air got colder.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Duncan was slowly backing up towards the door now. Though he would never admit it, he suddenly felt afraid.

'_I. Want. You. To. GET. OUT!' _The voice screeched the last two words, the most high-pitched scream Duncan had ever heard. With his hands clamped firmly over his ears Duncan bolted from the room.

"I'm going I'm going!" He screamed as he ran through the door. Once he made it back to the porch the door slammed shut behind him abruptly cutting off the enraged scream. "Damn." Duncan groaned glaring at the door and rubbing his ringing ears. He turned fully intending to head back to Chris' cabin, but froze at what he saw before him.

"I see you've met the Banshee." Duncan gaped at the redheaded girl before him who was grinning at him like a maniac. "Whaz tha matta? You look like you've seen a ghost." The redhead paused, a thoughtful look on her face. "Oh wait, that's because you have!" Cackling insanely the redhead vanished in the blink of an eye.

"Don't mind Izzy. She's insane." Flinching violently Duncan whipped around to see two more people staring at him. He couldn't exactly make out their figure seeing as both were slightly transparent, but he knew one was a boy and one was a girl. The girl who had spoken continued. "I'm Courtney by the way."

As the thunder cracked above him and the sky lit up with lightning, Duncan's only response was a shudder.

* * *

**Dun dun **_**duuuuuun **_**the plot thickeeeennsssss. There you have it. After three strait weeks of writers block this is what I produce. I think its alright. If I missed explaining something or didn't explain something very well let me know so I can fix it or fill you in. We 'officially' reveal two of the ghosts now. Next time all of them will come out. I think a lot of you knew the two people were Beth and Cody, so congrats if you did. As I said before at some point of the beggining of the story some of the characters are OOC due to insanity. Chris definetly lost a a few marbles there and Cody is, like, hardcore. Someone had to be the rock and keep the others mildly sane so I picked Cody and Beth. Next chapter ALL shall be revealed. The identity of the eight dead campers, the official cause to Bridgette and Gwen's little panic attack, and what happened on the day the campers were murdered. Though I'm saving the killer for later. Don't forget to review! Reviews inspire me to write quicker. Don't forget to let me know if I missed something to.**

**Peace and love,**

**Silent Assassin**


	6. Meet the Ghosts

**I... Am... ALIIIIVE!!!!!111one At last, the Silent Assassin has returned! I'm so sorry I haven't updated this for a while. I had internet problems a little after Christmas and they've only just now started to get better a week or two ago. I finally slapped my lazy hands into action and FINISHED THIS CHAPTER. The longest yet I might add. Nearly 20 pages. I kept looking for a good place to end it but figured you guys had suffered enough. So behold, chapter six!!!**

**Writing this was like one huge blur... Hope you don't get too lost. T_T Then again it might just be me. Oh well, enjoy at last chapter six!**

* * *

_Chapter 6: Meet The Ghosts_

"Speechless I see." The boy drawled in a bored tone. 'Courtney' gave him a sharp look then glanced back over at Duncan who was still gaping at them dumbly and shivering violently.

"Shut your mouth or bugs will fly in there." Duncan's mouth snapped shut with an audible click and tried to keep his teeth from chattering.

"… W-Who are you?" Duncan asked after minutes of silence.

"Well. At least he didn't scream first." The boy snickered. Courtney glared at him and smacked him upside the head. He yelped and rubbed the back of his head glaring daggers at Courtney.

"Go find the others or something." She commanded pointing off in some random direction.

"Yes _mom_." With a roll of his eyes the boy was gone. Courtney looked back up at Duncan again, an apologetic smile on her face.

"Ignore my brother too. He's always like that."

"Brother?" This time Courtney rolled her eyes.

"Yes _brother_. I honestly didn't think you were this stupid." Getting over his lapse of shock Duncan glared at the girl. He still couldn't really make out what she looked like, but she had a definite outline and he could clearly see her face.

"I'm not stupid. Just surprised." Duncan huffed crossing his arms over his chest. He meant for it to look like an act of indignation but ruined it by rubbing his frozen arms.

"Right. Of coarse."

"Are you one of the campers that died here?" Duncan asked bluntly. Courtney nodded. Sighing loudly he rubbed his eyes. "Ok… Ok, do you know what happened to our boat?"

"Yes."

"Do you know where it is?"

"Yes."

"… Are you going to tell me where it is?"

"No."

"Why not?!"

"Because you can't leave yet."

"Why? We need to get back!"

"Not yet. Meet me at my grave tomorrow and we'll talk. Oh, and tell your friends they can walk around the island all they like. They're safe, for now."

"Meet at your… What?!" But she had already disappeared. Once Courtney had vanished the air around Duncan had warmed slightly, but it was still considerably cold. Add the fact that he was soaking wet and he was still just as freezing. He stared at the place where the two ghosts had been before hurrying down the stairs and back towards Chris' cabin.

By the time Duncan got back to the giant cabin it was noticeably darker and it was still pouring. The run there had warmed up his body slightly but he was still freezing cold. The entire time Duncan had thought about what the ghost girl had said, which wasn't much. She knew where the boat was and she wanted to talk to him. But should he really be talking with a dead girl in the first place? He ought to ask Cody about it. He seemed like he talked to the ghosts enough.

Duncan entered the kitchen and glanced around. Like he had hoped everyone was there. His big camping lantern was on the kitchen counter lighting up the room enough for some of the candles to be blown out. Cody and Beth were at the stove cooking again. Chris was sitting on the same stool as before. His hair was fixed up now flowing down to the middle of his back in silky black waves. The man looked a lot happier to. Gwen and Bridgette sat on stools on either side of Chris. Both had blankets draped over their shoulders and steaming mugs of something in their hands. Tyler Harold and DJ were sitting in the living room that was connected to the open kitchen talking to each other in hushed whispers.

"I'm back." Duncan announced stepping into the kitchen. All heads turned in his direction.

"Duncan, you look white as death bro." Tyler exclaimed.

"I met one of the ghosts." He explained. He stood in the center of the kitchen, shivering and staring at nothing. Seeing this Cody whispered something in Beth's ear. She ran out of the kitchen and returned a moment later with another blanket that she draped over Duncan's shoulders.

"Which one?" The nerdy girl asked gently leading him to sit beside Gwen.

"She said her name was Courtney. There was a boy with her."

"What he look like?" Cody asked shoving a mug in the punk's hand. Throwing caution to the wind Duncan took a big gulp of whatever was in the mug. To his delight he realized it was hot chocolate. Very, very hot chocolate.

"I don't know." Duncan answered, coughing slightly as the hot chocolate burned his throat. He took another more careful sip.

"So you said you saw Courtney, right?" Chris asked leaning forward slightly so he could look at Duncan. Seeing the punk's nod the host frowned and sat back while Beth sighed sadly.

"Poor Courtney. She never really had friends on the show." Beth said returning to the stove. "She mostly hung out with her brothers."

"Oh yeah… she said the guy with her was her brother. What's her brother's name?"

"What did Courtney want?" Cody asked instead of answering.

"Uh… she said she knew where our boat was."

"What?! Where?!" DJ Shouted. Duncan continued ignoring his friend.

"Said she wanted me to meet her at her grave tomorrow so we could talk. Also said that we're free to walk around the island because we're safe for now, whatever that means."

"That's good." Cody said with a nod.

"Good that we're safe?"

"That, and that she wants to talk with you. There's got to be a reason they let you all into the island. The last person they let in was a lost fisherman, and they just messed around with him for a while before making him jump of Mt. Wawanakwa."

"What if they're just messing with us too?" Harold asked.

"Then they're being _very _sneaky about it." Chris answered bitterly. "Messing with your head and whatnot."

"I think you should go talk to her." Gwen announced as she gingerly sipped her hot chocolate. Duncan was a bit surprised. She hadn't spoken much all day.

"Well I don't! That's a terrible idea." Bridgette said from the other side of Chris. "You guys have all heard what Beth Cody and Chris said. These spirits are out to get us!"

"But what about the one you said helped you find the medicine?" Tyler pointed out. Bridgette was about to say something but settled on taking a gulp of her hot chocolate.

"Well I still say you should go." Gwen said. "I've met one of the ghosts to. At least, I think I met one. That or I had the most morbid dream last night… Anyways, he seemed lost, like he wanted help."

"What did he look like?" Cody asked. He had finished cooking and was now pouring whatever was in the pot into bowls.

"Black hair, green camo shirt with a black handprint, had a guitar, screamed something about a nine." Gwen listed off her fingers. At the mention of nine Duncan glanced down at her hand. The bloody nine that was previously there this morning was gone. Someone must have washed it off for her.

"Trent." Chris Beth and Cody stated in unison.

"Trent was one of the campers that died." Cody explained. He gave Bridgette Chris Gwen and Duncan a bowl while Beth took some to Harold Tyler and DJ.

"When I was looking around the cabins I found a broken guitar with the initials T.E. on it. Must be him." Duncan said idly stirring the ramen that had just been placed in front of him.

"I still think it's a bad idea to go to the graveyard tomorrow." Bridgette mumbled around her mouthful of noodles. Duncan shook his head at her.

"No. I think Gwen is right. I think these ghosts need our help." Duncan stated looking up at Cody. The boy shrugged.

"They might. Why else would they keep us alive here for so long and let you in?"

"Exactly. I'm going to talk to her tomorrow." Duncan said firmly in a voice that left no room for argument.

"… So what was Courtney like?" Gwen asked after a few minutes of silent eating. Duncan shrugged, a small smirk playing his face.

"Bossy and annoying." He answered simply. Beth chuckled quietly.

"That does sound like Courtney. She was the self elected leader of her team and she was always bossing people around like she was the queen of England or something."

"A totally spoiled princess?" Duncan said with a smirk. Beth smiled sheepishly and nodded.

"I hate to say it, I really do, but even _I _didn't like her very much."

"She was just as bad as Heather if not worse." Cody scoffed.

"I don't think her own brothers even liked hanging around her."

"So, what should my strategy be when I go see her tomorrow?"

"Don't say anything stupid." Cody answered bluntly. Duncan waited for him to say more, but the teen remained silent staring at him with an expectant look.

"Right… Good to know." Nodding once Cody glanced towards the broken window to see that rain was still pouring outside.

"I need to get back to Playa De Loser." The teen announced. Beth glanced towards the window sighing heavily.

"Alright. Be careful Cody." She told him as he exited the kitchen.

"I will, like always." He called from the front hall. "I'll be back tomorrow afternoon. And for God's sake _don't _let the outsiders walk around by themselves." The slamming of the door signaled Cody's leave and all was quiet once more.

"You guys will sleep in here for the night." Beth said once everyone was finished with their meals motioning towards the living room. "Despite the fact that this place looks like a mansion there are only two bedrooms. Chris sleeps in his room upstairs while I sleep in Chef's, also upstairs. It gets pretty cold at night to make sure to bundle up tight." Chris nodded in silent agreement wrapping his tattered brown cloak tighter around himself for emphasis. "Even though Duncan said that Courtney said it was ok to walk around I wouldn't be surprised if she pulled something over on you if she caught you by yourself. Please listen to Cody and don't go wondering off by yourselves, and if you do always stick together. Kay?"

Seeing the others' nods of agreement and understanding Beth as well as Chris gave a brisk goodnight before heading upstairs leaving Duncan and his friends alone together. Duncan Bridgette and Gwen stood from their stools and went to join DJ Harold and Tyler in the living room. It wasn't much, like the rest of the island. There were two couches that the girls immediately claimed banishing the boys to sleep on the floor. A huge flat screen TV hung on the wall opposite the couches, no use since there was no power here. There were two big oversized beanbag chairs that Tyler and DJ took as their beds leaving Harold and Duncan on the floor. At least Tyler had handed Duncan his sleeping bag from the night before so he didn't have to sleep on the disgusting carpet.

"Are you really going to go meet that ghost tomorrow?" Bridgette asked warily once everyone had found their place to sleep.

"I don't see why not." Duncan answered simply folding his hands behind his head trying to get comfortable.

"But… what if something happens to you?"

"I'm with Bridge on this one dude. These spirits seem like bad news from what we've heard. I don't think we should mess with 'em." Tyler agreed.

"What you guys fail to grasp here is that we have no other choice. Duncan has to talk to the ghost so we can get the boat back and go home before school starts on Monday." Harold stated.

"Harold's right. Finding out what these ghosts want from us is the only way to get home." Gwen agreed.

"If we're all in agreement I think we should get some sleep." Duncan said. "That Courtney chick will probably want to meet me early tomorrow." Ignoring Bridgette and DJ's sighs of defeat Duncan rolled over on his side so that he was facing away from his friends. Though he would never admit it, he was scared, just as scared as he had been when he was in the cabin before Courtney had appeared. He didn't know what to expect come morning, but for now Duncan listened to the rain outside, and willed for sleep to come.

* * *

Like Duncan had hoped he woke up before the others the next morning. Glancing around the living room he was surprised to see all his friends sleeping around him. Vaguely he wondered where he was before it all came crashing back to him. All the events that took place yesterday came rushing back to him making him groan and attempt to rub the sleep form his eyes. Blinking tiredly Duncan stood up as silently as he could and exited the living room into the kitchen.

There he took a moment to compose himself. _Should I wait for the others to wake up before I go? _He asked himself glancing over his shoulder at his sleeping friends. Shaking his head forcibly Duncan walked out of the dusty kitchen. _No. I'd better leave. Besides, they'll be fine with Beth and Chris. They know where I'm going._

Duncan yawned loudly and stretched once he stepped out of the dark cabin and into the weak light of morning. It was cold, but a pleasant morning chill. Dark gray clouds still hung in the sky but a few stray rays of sunlight managed to break through and reach the island. The forest around him glistened as the sunlight reflected off of the many raindrops on the trees and plants. Inhaling deeply Duncan relished the scent of wet pine tree and couldn't resist the urge to smile. After all, the peaceful scenery was much better to wake up to than a hysterical Gwen.

"Heading out already?" Duncan nearly jumped out of his skin when the voice of Chris shattered his peaceful moment. Spinning on his heel he saw the old host standing in the doorway of the cabin staring at him curiously.

"Uh… yeah." the green haired punk answered hesitantly. Chris sighed and looked out towards the forest, a wistful look on his face.

"… Well… good luck. Hopefully Courtney will tell you something important. Maybe we'll finally be able to get off this god forsaken island." He muttered barely above a whisper. Duncan frowned at him. From what he could gather Chris had sometimes been downright cruel to the once living campers, but no matter what he did no one deserved to be trapped on an island for three years constantly living in fear of his surroundings. The poor guy was too terrified to even leave the cabin. "Just follow that path. It'll lead you to the grave sight." Chris said pointing towards the well-worn dirt path they had walked yesterday.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks." Duncan said sincerely. Chris inclined his head to the teen, cast one last wistful look at the forest, then disappeared back into the cabin. Steeling his nerves Duncan cracked his knuckles determinately and headed towards the path. After walking at a brisk pace Duncan reached the graveyard in a little under twenty minutes.

The graveyard looked the same as it had yesterday. A simple clearing with eight simple headstones all lined up in a row. The bouquets Beth had laid there yesterday were still there, the raindrops glistening on the colorful flowers like diamonds. Idly running his hands through his short hair Duncan approached the headstones. Since he had left the moment he woke up he hadn't gotten a change to spike his Mohawk so now his green hair hung limply in his eyes. Glancing around the clearing he saw no sign of the spectral girl.

"… Courtney?" He called timidly. "Courtney? You there? I came like you wanted me to." He said coming to a stop beside the nearest headstone. No answer came. Sighing loudly Duncan crossed his arms over her chest and flopped down to sit beside the headstone. The ground was surprisingly dry and only a little damp so he didn't mind. Sighing again he leaned against the headstone. They _were_ pretty simple, just a big smooth rock by the looks of it. But running his hands over the smooth stone Duncan felt the small jagged carvings etched into it. Glancing down Duncan read the words carved into the headstone.

_Heather Hawthorn._

"Heather? Huh. Cody mentioned a Heather." Duncan mused. Then suddenly, it became very cold.

"You shouldn't talk to yourself. People might think you're crazy." Nearly jumping out of his skin for the second time that day Duncan glanced up sharply to see a familiar outline standing in front of him.

"… Courtney?" He asked.

"That's my name." Courtney said proudly. And all at once, there she was. Duncan gasped and scrambled back slightly. All of a sudden Courtney was there, all of her was there. She wasn't just an outline anymore and she wasn't even transparent. She looked like any other living human being to him. Taking the opportunity presented to him Duncan took a moment to examine the specter before him.

She looked like she was a few years younger than him. Her skin was a deep tanned color and she wore a white blouse with a gray vest as well as army green pants. Courtney had shoulder length chocolate brown hair and her nose was dusted with light freckles. But the thing Duncan noticed most about her was her eyes. Her eyes, which should be glinting in the light, were dark and cold.

And in all essence, dead.

But despite that Duncan couldn't help but admit she looked kind of… well, pretty.

"What the?" Duncan gasped. At the moment he was to confused to say much else. Courtney rolled her empty black eyes and placed her hands on her hips.

"Well at least you showed up." She huffed. Blinking dumbly Duncan glanced around again. The boy from last night was nowhere in sight.

"Where's the guy from before?" Courtney frowned at this and paused a moment before answering.

"My brother is dealing with… other things right now. It's just you and me for a while."

"What sorts of other things? Who is he? Who are you? Why are you here?" Courtney held up her hand signaling for him to stop.

"First of all you might want to read the rest first. It'll be less confusing." She said motioning towards the other headstones. Duncan eyed her warily. Seeing that she was just standing there looking impatient and not trying to kill him Duncan headed her orders and turned himself to read the other headstones.

From left to right, it went like this.

_Heather Hawthorn. Justin Sinclair. Izzy Green. Noah Evans. Courtney Evans. Trent Evans. Geoff Warner. LeShawna Blaire._

He read the names of the dead teens, the read them again firmly planting their names in his memory.

"You had two brothers?" Duncan asked without looking up from the headstone that had her name carved on it.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. It seemed like you only had one."

"Things aren't always what they seem."

"Yeah, yeah whatever." Duncan looked up and was surprised to see Courtney sitting on top of her own headstone, legs crossed with her head resting in her palm, staring down at him curiously. "So… the one from last night must have been Noah." He ventured quickly getting over his shock. Courtney cocked an eyebrow at him and nodded.

"Good guess. How'd you know?"

"Well a friend of mine said she 'met' the Trent guy. That or she dreamed of him. From what she told me the guy from last night seemed way too sane to be Trent." Courtney scowled at him, then frowned and sighed.

"None of us are sane. Not anymore at least." She muttered bitterly. Duncan sat back looking up at her curiously.

"Cody said something like that, but he and Beth seem pretty sane. You seem sane enough to me to." Courtney shrugged.

"You'd be surprised." Was all she said. They sat in silence after that, staring at each other, just like how he and Cody stared at each other last night. Neither saying anything, both reluctant to break the questioning gaze first.

"… Why did you want to talk to me today?" Duncan asked tentatively after a moment. Courtney blinked once then sat up folding her hands in her lap.

"I know you're wondering why you're here." She started.

"Well yeah. And we kind of need to get back."

"You see those clouds?" Courtney asked randomly pointing up towards the sky. At Duncan's nod she continued. "They're here nearly all the time. They block The Light and we become lost in the dark as well. We're just as trapped on this island as you are."

"What do you mean?" Courtney sighed, her shoulders drooping slightly.

"I… I don't know. When we died we couldn't leave the island either. The clouds blocked The Light and we couldn't get through. We didn't know what was happening or why. I still don't understand it, none of us really do. Sometimes I doubt my own existence. Am I really here, or am I just an illusion? A memory? I don't know. I just don't know anymore." Duncan stared at her, surprised. Courtney looked close to hysterics now. Looks like she was right about the whole sanity thing.

"That still doesn't explain why I'm here. Cody and Beth said that you never let anyone on the island and the people you do let on you just kill for no reason." Duncan said. Courtney blinked again and looked up at him.

"You said you would help us." She answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What? When did I ever say that?" Duncan asked confusedly.

"When you first came here. When you were approaching the island." Duncan stared at her dumbly. When had he ever told her he would help her? He hadn't even known the stories his brother told him were true until last night. Then suddenly, it hit him. Before they had even reached the island, when they were still on the boat.

"Oh. That." He muttered nervously. "Uh… well, you see…" Courtney narrowed her eyes at him dangerously and Duncan faltered in his explanation while his mind worked furiously. What could he possibly say to her? 'No, I'm sorry, I don't know a single thing about helping ghosts. Give us back our boat and have a nice afterlife'.

… Yeah, no.

"That's right! My friends and I are here to help you to the great beyond and all that nonsense." Duncan chuckled nervously. Courtney stared at him for a moment more before her expression softened slightly and she nodded.

"Good."

"Yeah… So, I guess I should ask what happened to you?" Courtney shrugged.

"Probably."

"… So, what happened to you?"

"What do you know so far?" Duncan then proceeded to tell the ghost girl what he knew. About the stories his brother used to tell him as a kid and then Cody Beth and Chris' versions. Like Chris had done, Courtney snorted indignantly. "Poisoned… Yeah, the narcissist host was right. We weren't just poisoned." She said irritably.

"Well, what happened?" Courtney didn't answer immediately. Instead she was staring off into space, a sad frown on her face.

"… It was a normal day when we woke up, just like any other." She began in a hushed whisper. "I got up early like I always do. Heather woke up after I did and we raced for the showers, just like always. I managed to get there first and snagged the good shower before Heather could. She left after that. Kept muttering to herself, like Izzy usually did.

After I got out of the shower I went to breakfast. Geoff and Trent were arguing about something the whole time. I don't remember what, I didn't listen. LeShawna came in late to breakfast to. But that was nothing new, she always slept in and came late. Chef served us his usual slop that morning. It was pancakes. Yeah… H-He served us pancakes since we reached the halfway point in the competition. They weren't completely terrible if I remember correctly, so we just ate without a second thought. Owen was so happy to be eating actual food again that he ate like eight servings. But he ate way too much all at once that he threw it all up. After that he felt too sick to eat anymore. Heh, funny his enormous appetite ended up saving his life…"

"But wait, in the story I heard all of the campers died." Duncan cut in. "And Cody never mentioned one of you surviving." Courtney glared at him.

"Well they weren't there, were they?!" She snapped. "Now shut up and don't interrupt me again."

"Well sor-ry!" Duncan huffed making a mental note to ask Cody about this Owen guy. Courtney rolled her eyes and continued her tale.

"I noticed something was up about an hour after breakfast. We didn't have a challenge that day so everyone was relaxing, a little too much however. We were all just laying around, doing nothing, feeling incredibly tired. It affected Geoff first. He was bored lying around so he decided to skate around camp. He skateboarded for about five minutes before he collapsed. My brother, Noah, ran to help him but he collapsed a few moments after he stood up. All at once we all began to feel really sick, except Owen.

People started collapsing left and right. We didn't faint though, we were just so overwhelmed by this sick feeling that we could barely move. Chef tried to help us after Chris saw what was happening. They took us to the infirmary with Owen's help. They figured it was just some bad ingredient in the pancakes that was making us sick. But eventually, and I have no idea how they knew, they figured out we had somehow been slipped a deadly poison.

After that Chef shoved these weird little pills down our throats. They made us even sicker and we began to hurl all over the place. Chef was trying to get our bodies to purge the poison, but it was already in our system. After they realized that the pills weren't working Chef Chris and Owen left. I don't know why, but things got worse once they left. After we had thrown up all of the stomach acid we could spare people started coughing up blood. I don't know if it was the pills or the poison, either way I knew we were in trouble.

I… I remember the pain. It felt like my insides were on fire. It was getting harder to breath, and I kept coughing up blood. I was starting to lose consciousness. Then suddenly I heard Noah scream. He was lying in the bed beside mine and I looked over to see what was wrong. Black was tinting my vision by then, but I could clearly see my brother. He was… he was staring up at the ceiling. I could tell he was trying to scream, but I only heard this sick gurgling sound. Blood… blood was everywhere. It was trickling out of his mouth, just like the rest of us, but I could see his entire chest was soaked with blood. The murderer had slit his throat. Someone else screamed and I tried to turn my head, but the burning was just getting worse and worse. I heard people shouting at each other but I couldn't make out their voices. Then… I felt this h-horrible pain in my chest. After that, everything was black…"

"… That was when you died?" Duncan asked softly. Courtney nodded. She was close to tears now. He wasn't sure if a ghost could cry, but even if they could he didn't expect Courtney would. She seemed too proud of herself to cry.

"Yes. I don't remember anything after that. When we… met up Noah told me that the murdered had in fact slit his throat. Trent told me his hands had been cut off, and I was stabbed in the heart." She whispered placing her hand over her heart. "The others wouldn't say what happened to them… but we all agreed that none of us had seen who did it. But I believe it could have been one of us… But we were all paralyzed from the pain. How any of us could move let alone kill someone is beyond me." She shut her eyes tightly, trying to compose herself. Duncan frowned at the girl, pitying her. She didn't deserve what happened to her. None of them did.

Instinctively Duncan reached forward attempting to take Courtney's hand in his as a sign of comfort. He gasped in surprise however when his hand went right through hers having momentarily forgotten she, in essence, wasn't truly there. Duncan wasn't surprised by the fact he couldn't touch her, everyone knew ghosts couldn't touch. He was, however, surprised when he found his hand almost instantly became cold. Even more surprising was when Courtney smiled and sighed contently.

"Do you know why we let people on the island sometimes?" She asked absently still keeping her eyes shut. Duncan shook his head. Realizing that she still had her eyes closed he said,

"No." The chill in his hand was becoming uncomfortable, so he withdrew his hand not noticing Courtney's frown. She opened her eyes again and stared down at him.

"Well… when you've been dead as long as I have you acquire certain… needs." Duncan's eyes widened in mock horror.

"Oh my god, please tell me you don't bring people onto the island just to rape them."

If ghosts could blush, Courtney probably would have in that instant.

"No idiot! We don't rape them!"

And if ghosts could slap people, Duncan had a distinct feeling that Courtney would have. But she couldn't, so she settled with glaring daggers at him.

"No… You see… Uhg. How do I explain this?" She muttered scratching her head thoughtfully. "Oh! Ok, you remember yesterday when your friends were acting strange, right?" Duncan's eyes widened a fraction as he nodded. "Well that happens to every Live One when they first encounter us. It happened to you to yesterday." Seeing Duncan's blank look Courtney sighed and elaborated. "Well you know how you get really cold when you're around me?" The punk nodded. "It's… well to put it simply, it's the chill of death. The coldness of a corpse or whatever. We bring people onto the island because ghosts enjoy the life force Live Ones give off. It… it warms us up, you know?"

"I guess…" Duncan muttered.

"But it comes with a price for the Live Ones. When we hang around them too much we absorb all of their life force. Soon there's nothing left, they become an empty husk. With their life force drained they become just as cold as we do. When that happens we don't have any use for them anymore, so we dispose of them." Duncan was slightly taken aback at how easily she discussed this with him as if draining humans of their life force then killing them was an everyday thing for her. Which it probably was, he realized. "When you're dead human laws don't really apply to you." Courtney said as if reading his mind. "It was hard at first, killing without reason. But you get over it eventually."

"Is that why my friends were acting so weird yesterday? You drained some of their life force?" He asked angrily. Courtney blinked once and shook her head.

"No. We weren't around them long enough to drain them. Live Ones just go into shock for a while after they feel our chill. You'll get used to it."

"I hope so…" Duncan murmured under his breath. Silence reined after that as Courtney gave Duncan the opportunity to take everything in.

_So Gwen and I were right. They're not evil, they need our help. _He said to himself. But as Duncan stared at the dead girl before him he couldn't help but feel completely useless. _But how am I supposed to help them? I don't know what to do! _He stared deep into Courtney's eyes, searching for something. For what he didn't know, but it was obvious it wasn't there. Her eyes were merely inky black pools of nothingness. Staring at her dead eyes Duncan felt determination bubble up inside of him. _It's not my problem, I don't even know these people, I don't know how to help them. But I don't care! They don't deserve this. I'll find a way to help you Courtney, even if it kills me._

"So, what were you like before you came to the island?" Duncan asked bluntly leaning back on his elbows and smirking up at Courtney. The girl blinked confusedly.

"Well that was kinda random. Why do you ask?"

"Call it curiosity." Courtney paused for a moment and scratched her cheek thoughtfully.

"I… don't really remember." She answered honestly staring up at the sky. But then she smiled. "But I remember my brothers… Noah always liked to read…"

And she went on from there.

Hours passed, filled by the two talking with one another. It was true that Courtney didn't remember much before she died but she enjoyed talking about her brothers. Duncan was happy to listen to her seeing that Courtney enjoyed talking about her family and even told the dead girl about his own family. She seemed to especially like hearing about all the antics he got into with his juvie buddies. She disapproved of his crimes but still seemed to like hearing about his adventures in crime.

He hardly even noticed the cold.

Soon it was past noon. The two probably would have continued talking throughout the whole day if they hadn't been interrupted.

"Sorry to break up your little bonfire here, but we have a problem." Flinching violently Duncan turned his head to see a boy crouching on top of the grave beside Courtney's. The girl didn't seem at all surprised by the sudden appearance of the boy and glared at him.

"What kind of problem, Noah?" She asked irritably. Duncan could certainly see that the two were related. Noah's skin was the same dark tone as Courtney's. He had messy shoulder length dark brown hair wore a red sweater vest over a blue jacket as well as baggy jeans. And his eyes, like Courtney's, were dead and black. Noah spared Duncan a glance before looking back at his sister and answered her in a bored tone.

"The Banshee found the Live Ones."

* * *

**I enjoy making the campers related. ^_^ Noah could totally be Courtney's brother! WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES IT?!?! I have a lot to say in this AN. Where to begin... I guess I'll start with: DUN DUN DUUUNNNN! Let's see now what... Ah yes! Special thanks to Snowiyflake who helped me with some of the campers last names. Without her I probably wouldn't have typed this as quickly. Thanks man! Now what... Ok! So, based on Courtney's story, we now know from a campers POV what happened on the day of their deaths. Based on her story who do you think the killer is? It's obvious it isn't Courtney... Or IS IT?! WAS IT ALL A LIE?! You'll just have to find out... I continue to love Google. I actually did some research, I know crazy right, and found an actual poison for the story. When I googled the most deadly poisons I choose the top most deadly. And get this, the guy who wrote an artical on the poison used in the storys name is Chris McCarson. How weird is that! o_O When I saw that I KNEW I had to use it in this. The symptoms are real with a few of my own tossed in. If you can guess what the poison is you might be able to guess how they were killed and who did it and why. So much to understand from one little bit of info! I think that's all I ahve to say except this: Who is this strange Banshee, and why is it a problem that she found the 'Live Ones'? Next time of The Haunted Campgrounds we see a bit more of the ghosts, the identity of the dreadful Banshee, and what the others were up to while Duncan was with Courtney all day. Don't forget to review!**

**Till next time**

**Silent Assassin.**

**(Hopefully I'll update quicker this time)**


	7. Ghost Stories, Part I

**... (Falls to knees and bows to readers) PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!111one I know its been like, what? 5 months since I last updated? PLZ PLZ PLZ don't kill me! I've already been horribly chewed out by Blacktwist _AND _Dreamspirit! They thretened to throw me in the shack of doom if I didn't update soon... I greatly fear the SHACK OF DOOM. Thus, this is why I kicked my hands into over drive and produced this. (Sees Blacktwist and Dreamspirit nod in approval in the backround and sighs in relief)**

**IMPORTANT!: Blacktwist pointed something out to me a few weeks ago, something that COMPLETELY slipped my mind. When Duncan Harold and Tyler first arrived at Chris' cabin they were SUPPOSED to see strange white flowers surrounding the whole cabin. And for SOME reason, I forgot to add that little tid bit of info. The flowers are VERY important and crucial to the story. The reason why will be revealed in this chapter (Part II probably) I'll go back and add the flower part... As soon as I remember how to do that...**

**ALSO IMPORTANT!: This chapter whill be split up into three parts. Why? BECAUSE I CAN. Whenever Duncan Courtney and Noah are speaking its the present. So the beginning of each part of the chapter will be the preasent, then it will go to events earliar on the same day. Confusing? Probably, but I'm sure you guys will be able to figure it out. **

**And now, at last, enjoy chapter 7, part I**

* * *

_Chapter 7: Ghost Stories, Part I_

"What do you _mean _the Banshee found them?" Courtney exclaimed as she flew, literally _flew_, to her feet. Noah straitened up and crossed his arms over his chest glaring down at his sister.

"I mean what I mean. She found them." He answered. He calmly sidestepped off of his tombstone and gently fell to the ground to stand in front of her. Never once did he make a sound, not even the rustling of his clothes made a noise.

"Didn't I tell you to keep her busy!" Courtney snapped shoving an accusing finger in his face. Noah glared at her finger, going cross-eyed for a moment, before brushing it away from his face.

"I tried, ok. I told the others to keep the Banshee busy and to keep an eye on the Live Ones. But did they listen? Nooooo! No one _ever_ listens to Noah."

"Just tell me what happened Noah." The dead girl sighed rubbing her temples in frustration. Duncan chose that moment to stand up.

"What are you talking about? Who is the Banshee?" He asked. Noah turned his head to look Duncan up and down, sizing him up. Apparently he didn't like what he saw since his lips pulled back in a sneer as he turned back to Courtney.

"At first Geoff was doing a good job before he started talking with that blonde Live One." He began. "Then he didn't even bother to keep a look out for the Banshee. Trent immediately abandoned his post and started talking with that Goth chick and didn't once look around for trouble. Izzy was flying around in the water again torturing the sharks but she said she'd keep a look out. Something tells me she didn't. Justin absolutely _refused _to help preferring to sit up in the bathroom all day and mope. Now LeShawna actually did something. Once she noticed one of the Live Ones managed to get into the camp she tried to get him out of there, but the Banshee already found him. She _knows _they're here, Courtney! She knew when _he _was snooping around her cabin." Noah answered gesturing to Duncan accusingly.

"Where are they now?" Courtney asked hurriedly.

"LeShawna managed to round them up and get them back to Chris' cabin. The mist is there, all around the cabin. It's taking all we have to keep her out. To make matters worse Justin and Izzy are backing her up."

"Damn it." Courtney hissed through clenched teeth.

"Well come on, we need to get back!" Noah pressed grabbing his sister's arm and jerking her in the direction of the cabin. In the back of his mind Duncan vaguely wondered why Noah could touch her, but snuffed the thought out and turned to more important matters.

"What is going on? Who is the Banshee?" Duncan called as he ran after Courtney and Noah who had flown off already. Courtney glanced over her shoulder and called back.

"Hurry up, your friends are in trouble!

* * *

**_Earlier that morning…_**

When Gwen woke up Duncan was nowhere to be found, not that she expected him to be around at least. She lifted her head off the arm of the couch she was sleeping on and saw that the others were still asleep. Her sleep had been dreamless last night and she was thankful for that. She hadn't been sure if 'Trent' would show up again. He hadn't and she felt much more relaxed because of that.

Yawning widely Gwen sat up on the couch and stretched as she scratched her head sleepily. She frowned when her fingers got caught in the snarls in her hair and made a mental note to run a comb through it later, seeing as she was distracted by a noise behind her at the moment. Standing from the couch, careful not to step on Harold who was snoring loudly, Gwen approached the counter that separated the living room from the kitchen. Chris was there, shuffling around and staring into cupboards and pantries with a dismal frown on his face.

"Hey…" Gwen greeted uncertainly seating herself on one of the stools. Chris glanced at her before sighing and shutting the cupboard.

"You have to ration food around here." The ex-host told her sounding very tired. "This is all we get for the next few weeks. The survivors at Playa De Loser don't get much either." Gwen frowned feeling a bit guilty. All those times her school had those food drive things she could have helped feed these guys.

"That sucks." Gwen replied bluntly, as was the usual teenage response. Chris nodded solemnly.

"Yeah. It does suck."

"So… I'm guessing breakfast is out of the question?"

"Yep. We only eat when necessary, about twice a day. I just wish there was something I could snack on…"

"That sucks."

"You said that already."

"I know." Silence fell after that, during which Gwen frantically tried to come up with something to say to break the awkward silence while Chris stared out the window blankly. It had stopped raining at some point during the night, but the dark clouds remained.

"… You just missed your friend." Chris said after a while.

"Oh. Duncan?" She asked lamely.

"Yeah. Left a few minutes ago. Went to talk with Courtney." Chris paused for a moment, his frown turning into a wistful smile. "She was always my favorite camper you know. She was so… nasty and strategic and smart and… just plain awesome." Gwen stared at him incredulously for a moment before smiling wickedly.

"Sounds like someone had a bit of a crush there." She said teasingly. The man's gaze snapped to the grinning Goth before him, clearly taken aback.

"What? That's insane! I did _not _have a _crush _on Courtney! I mean the very idea is completely ridiculous! You're ridiculous! I was eight years older than her! I mean sure I admired her for her skills, but that doesn't mean I had a crush on her! I am _so _not a pedophile! We were only friends if not less! If I had played favorites the network would have eaten me alive! Not the mention the fact that-" During his little tirade Chris had started pacing back and forth. Gwen listened to it all, somehow getting the feeling he had recited this rant many times, her mischievous grin still plastered across her face.

"Friends." Gwen interrupted bluntly. Chris ceased his pacing to stare at Gwen, surprise written across his features, as if he had forgotten she was there. He blinked once and nodded. "Nothing more?" This time Chris hesitated a moment before nodding again. "Fine. That's fine by me. People are always saying Duncan and I should be a couple, but I only like him as a friend."

"Amen dudette." Chris sighed in relief.

"So were you and Courtney very good friends?" Gwen asked folding her arms on the counter and resting her head in her hand.

"I… I think we could have been." Chris answered hesitantly. "Courtney was, like, the only one who understood me. She wasn't exactly mean or evil despite popular belief, just a bit bossy. She got that I wasn't evil, the network was. They made me act mean for the cameras. Sure I enjoyed my job most of the time, but I never really meant it. Sometimes… after the day was done and the cameras were off we would talk. You know, hang out. Courtney was an amazing person, and you have no idea how much I miss her… There's no doubt in my mind she would have won if… if…" Chris trailed off, his voice caught in his throat as his eyes fogged up.

"If she hadn't died?" Gwen finished bluntly.

A moment later she realized that was the wrong thing to say, for the man's head fell forward into his hands and his shoulders shook violently.

"I can't believe she died. She shouldn't have died. She wasn't supposed to die!" He wailed. Gwen's eyes widened in alarm.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked. Chris didn't answer proffering to sob silently in his hands.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this…it wasn't supposed to end there!" Gwen slowly stood from the stool and backed away from the counter, watching the man with a mixed look of surprise and fascination, not having a clue what he was going on about but made a mental note of it.

"Chris?" Someone called tiredly and worriedly. Beth stumbled into the kitchen then, her hair a disarrayed mess and wearing a rumpled green nightgown that was a little too short for her. Beth fumbled for her glasses that hung on the neckline of her nightgown slipping them on her face and blinking in surprise when everything came into focus. "Chris? What happened?" She asked hurrying to stand beside the distraught man.

"Courtney…" Chris sniveled instead of answering. Beth cocked a questioning eyebrow at Gwen who was still standing behind the counter staring at the ex-host.

"What's going on? What about Courtney? What did she do, is she here?" Beth asked while glancing around the kitchen nervously.

"I don't know." Gwen answered honestly. "He started talking about Courtney and freaked out." The nerdy girl switched her questioning gaze to Chris looking incredibly confused. She obviously had no idea what was going on either. She probably didn't even know about Chris' past relationship with the dead girl.

"Ah… I'll just go then." Gwen muttered suddenly feeling very out of place. Beth didn't hear the Goth seeing as she was too preoccupied with calming down Chris. Gwen seized the opportunity and quickly exited the kitchen, leaving the two behind.

Gwen strode out of the cabin and emerged outside glancing around her surroundings. Little sunlight was able to break through the thick clouds in the sky, but it was enough to light the area well enough. It was cold that morning and Gwen was thankful she had slept in her jacket that night.

_Well now what? _Gwen asked herself irritably. She really didn't feel like going back in the cabin since she felt like Chris' break down was her fault, which it pretty much was, but Cody and Beth had made it clear not to walk around by themselves. A cool breeze stirred Gwen's hair reminding her that she didn't want to be staying outside in the cold for long anyways.

'_Explore…' _Something suggested in the back of her mind. _'Look around. You won't go far. What could possibly happen?' _Glancing back at the cabin one more time Gwen decided to do just that. _Yeah. I won't go far. I'll just look around for a minute. _She told herself. With that Gwen picked a random direction and headed into the forest.

Ten minutes later Gwen found herself still walking in the woods. But her curiosity and determination to explore had faded after the first five minutes along with it her courage. Now she felt nervous… exposed even. Cody's warning kept ringing in her ears setting her on edge. The only thing that kept her calm was, surprisingly, telling herself over and over again that it was a stupid idea to go into the forest in the first place.

_I mean seriously, what was I thinking? I could get lost or something. I'm probably lost right now! _Gwen berated herself as she glared at the trees around her with a scowl. They all seemed dead, lifeless, gray, and strangely… familiar. _I must have passed this tree before. Great, now I really am lost. _She told herself.

'_You're not lost. You know exactly where you are, you just don't realize it yet.' _The voice in the back of her mind told her.

_Really? I hadn't noticed. _Gwen mentally snapped. She was starting to get frustrated. The trees all looked familiar to her now. She was sure she had passed them a few times already.

'_Only once actually.' _The voice told her matter-of-factly. The voice was frustrating too. It was not her own voice. She realized it, but at the same time she didn't acknowledge that little fact. If she had she might have realized why it sounded familiar, just as the trees looked familiar.

_Yeah whatever. As long as I get out of here soon I'll be ok. Just got to relax… I mean SERIOUSLY? What was I thinking? I'm going to need some serious therapy when we get home…_

'_Why the hell would you need therapy?'_

_Oh, and like you wouldn't need therapy after being trapped on an island with a bunch of dead teenagers? _Gwen was running on autopilot at the moment. Not really thinking, except to talk to the voice that wasn't hers, just walking. Everything around her screamed at her. It was all familiar, but vaguely, and it made her heart race for some reason. It was like something out of a dream…

'_I don't think you're crazy.' _Her heart raced faster and faster still. Brambles and thorns kept scratching her legs as she walked. She could hear music like an echo. Like a dream…

_Right. You a psychiatrist then? _Gwen suddenly broke through the trees around her and stumbled forward into a clearing.

'_Actually, I'm…' _"A friend." As Gwen stared at the sight before her the only thing she was able to say was…

"… _Serious _therapy."

In a familiar clearing, on a familiar stump, sat a familiar boy, who held a familiar guitar, with an unfamiliar smile plastered across his face.

It was like something out of a dream.

"You… You're…" Gwen stuttered.

"A friend." The boy repeated with a hint of amusement. Gwen closed her eyes and shook her head, racking her brain for memories. A clearing, a guitar, a song, a boy, bloody hands… No wonder the forest looked so familiar.

She had been here before.

"No… you're from my dream…" Gwen said aloud. Opening her eyes again she peered at the boy. He looked the same as he did in her dream. His unkempt shaggy black hair hung above his shoulders, he wore the same camo shirt and black pants, he held the same guitar, his hands looked fine and clean of any mysterious blood, and his jade green eyes were completely blank and lifeless, devoid of the fear and anger that had blazed in them in her dream. "… Trent." The boy, Trent, nodded.

"That's right. And you must be Gwen right?" He asked. "I heard my friends talking about you."

"… Yeah." The Goth answered after a moment of hesitation. Trent nodded and silence fell. Trent stared at Gwen, who stared right back, wondering what to make of the ghost that sat in front of her. The sky didn't appear like it was going to start oozing blood everywhere, and Trent wasn't freaking out over a number, so she decided she wasn't in any danger. For now at least. "So… What do you want?" Gwen asked as the silence dragged on. The ghost boy shrugged.

"Nothing." He answered curtly. His smile was still lighting up his face, which irritated Gwen slightly.

"… What are you smiling about?"

"Nothing. Just in a good mood I guess."

"Why?"

"No reason." In the span of five seconds Gwen's slight irritation became extreme irritation.

"Look, I don't have time to stand around and play games, so if you can just point me in the direction of Chris' cabin I'd really appreciate it." Gwen snapped. Trent's face fell into a frown for a moment before curling back up into a smile again.

"What's the rush? You came here to explore didn't you?"

"Well yeah but… How did you know that?" Gwen asked while eyeing the ghost suspiciously. Trent's eyes widened slightly at that.

"Uh… well… why else would someone go walking around a creepy forest or whatever?" He answered lamely with a nervous chuckle.

"Hmm… Touché." Gwen yielded reluctantly. Trent sat up a little straighter, looking awfully proud of himself for one reason or another. "Don't look so pleased with yourself. I still want you to take me back to the cabin."

"Sure thing." Trent said cheerily as he stood from the stump. Slinging his guitar over his shoulder he made his way towards the opposite side of the clearing. Gwen, realizing he probably wanted her to follow him, hurried after the ghost.

"Isn't the cabin the other way?" Gwen pointed out as she came to walk a few paces behind Trent.

"Probably." He replied.

"Well then shouldn't we be going that way instead of the opposite direction?" The ghost boy merely rolled his shoulders in a shrug, indicating he didn't care which route they took. Gwen sighed, mostly in exasperation. She didn't care which way they went either as long as it got her back to the cabin.

They walked in silence for a while, during which Gwen watched Trent's back like a hawk. Or a falcon, as Harold would have proffered her to think, seeing as a falcon's eyesight was _way _more superior. Trent didn't do much of anything though. He just walked along, glancing over his shoulder every now and then to make sure Gwen was still following him before returning his attention to the path. He also glanced at the trees a lot which Gwen found a bit odd. But then again, Trent's very being was odd.

Being a Goth Gwen's mind was very open to the thought of the supernatural. Sure she didn't believe vampires and werewolves and witches or whatever walked amongst them, despite popular belief, but she could wrap her mind around the fact that these things could exist if she wanted to. But being here and seeing with her own eyes that ghosts did exist lead to many questions. Why was Trent here, aside from the obvious? Why couldn't he leave? What could he do since he was a ghost now? And why did he seem so cheerful? Really, even she expected a bit of horror movie clichés from the ghost. But he didn't moan and groan mindlessly, he wasn't terrorizing anyone, he wasn't even transparent. He looked like any other living human being you passed of the streets and was genuinely happy by the looks of it.

Although Gwen was quickly, and rather abruptly, reminded that Trent was, in fact, very dead.

Trent had stopped dead in his tracks (No pun intended) to look around at the trees surrounding them. Gwen, who was caught up in her own thoughts, walked right through him as if he wasn't even there. Which, she realized, he wasn't. Gwen gasped loudly at the feeling equivalent to jumping into a bucket of ice water and almost fell over in surprise.

"What the heck was that?" The surprised teen cried as she whipped around to face Trent. He was grimacing and ruffling his hair for some reason.

"Whew… What a rush…" Trent mumbled to himself. He dragged his hand over his forehead like he was wiping away sweat, but Gwen couldn't see any on him. "Uhg. That was weird." He announced more loudly so Gwen could hear him.

"You're telling me! What was that?" Gwen repeated frantically rubbing her arms in an attempt to warm back up quicker. Trent was fanning himself as she did.

"Don't worry about it. That just happens when a Live Ones touches one of us." Trent reassured her. Gwen cocked a curious eyebrow at the ghost boy.

"Live One?" She repeated under her breath.

"Wow. That felt like jumping into a sauna." Trent said with a small grin. Gwen regarded him with an un-amused look. Seeing this Trent's grin fell into a concerned frown. "Sorry. Guess I should have warned you about that. Are you ok? Not too cold?"

"I'm fine." Gwen huffed curtly. She was still cold, but at least she was warming up quickly. Trent released a barely audible sigh of relief and turned his attention back to the trees. Gwen made a mental note to figure out what that was all about later. She made a second mental note to make sure she kept a careful distance from the ghost boy and to be more careful. But for now her attention was focused on why Trent was walking around and around in small circles.

"What _are _you doing?" Gwen asked curiously as he stared at the trees. "Don't tell me we're lost."

"Nope. Not lost." Trent answered confidently. "Just looking for the right one."

"What right one?"

"This right one." He stopped at that, gesturing to the tree that stood a few feet away. Making her way over to the tree Gwen saw what Trent had been looking for. This tree had many small lines cut into the bark. It was hardly visible since the cuts were so small. "Its hard to see them since the bark has grown back a lot. They used to be bigger." Trent said with a nod. With that he continued on his way with Gwen trailing after him.

"What are they?" She asked. Trent glanced back at her over his shoulder with something akin to surprise on his face.

"Back then…" Trent began gesturing vaguely behind him, which Gwen could only assume meant the past. "I used to go to that clearing a lot to play music. Its one of the things I remember. I found it one day. So, I made nine marks in the trees to show me where to go."

"Oh. That's… smart."

"I got the idea after watching Balto." Trent told her seriously. The no-nonsense look on his face brought a small smile to Gwen's lips, which in turn caused Trent to smile again.

"So why nine on each?" Gwen asked as she watched the trees closely as they walked. Now that she knew what Trent kept looking for she too began to see a few small cuts in the trees.

"Its my lucky number." Trent answered nonchalantly.

"Oh. Why is nine your lucky number?"

"Well… You know, it's like a cosmic number." Trent answered slowly. Gwen cocked an eyebrow at him, clearly not understanding what he was getting at. Trent elaborated. "You know, cosmic. How there are nine planets in our solar system or galaxy or whatever you call it… I never was really good at science. But you know, nine planets, lucky number nine." He rambled nervously. Gwen continued to stare at him blankly for a moment before realization dawned on her. Her face then lit up in a knowing smirk and she even chuckled slightly.

"Oh, there aren't nine planets anymore." She told him with an amused smirk. Trent's head whipped around to face her and Gwen was a bit shocked to see he looked completely horrified. Once again he halted his steps, but Gwen was prepared this time and managed to stop before she ran into him. Or, went through him as the case would be…

"What? There aren't _nine _planets anymore? Since when? Why? How?" Trent gasped. Gwen's gaze went skyward and she scratched her cheek. _Clearly _she was thinking hard about it.

"I'm not really sure. Sometime in August 2006 Pluto was declared a midget planet or something. It isn't an 'official' planet anymore, which is just dumb really. About three years ago if… oh…" Gwen trailed off, realizing that might have been a wrong thing to say. But Trent didn't seem bothered by it. In fact, he looked thoughtful.

"That couldn't have been too long after we died." He said thoughtfully. He shook his head and sighed. "Oh well. Now I have to go back to the main reason nine is my lucky number…"

"Which is…?" Trent sighed again and stared up at the dark sky, a sad look on his face. Seeing this Gwen frowned feeling a bit guilty. "I don't mean to pry. You don't have to answer if you don't want to…" However Trent shook his head.

"Its ok. I haven't remembered in a long time." His graze returned to Gwen's and he smiled, a smile that did not reach his lifeless jade-green eyes. "It's good to remember what we can. It's one of the few things that we have left. You see when I was a kid my grandpa gave me this toy train for Christmas. I was stoked. But one day one of the wheels fell off so that there were only nine left. The next day my grandpa died. My mom told me that nine was my lucky number, and I've believed that ever since then."

"I'm sorry that happened to you…" Gwen said sincerely. "But I get what you went through. When I was a kid my dad died. I was really close to him…" Trent's small smile returned and this time Gwen smiled back. No words were exchanged as they continued their walk through the forest. Each were content that the other understood what they had experienced once in their lives, content that they found someone they could relate to.

Gwen did not even realize she had begun to walk beside Trent instead of behind him, nor had she noticed the cold.

"While we're on the topic of apologies…" Trent spoke up a minute later sounding nervous and sheepish. "To be honest, there's a reason I called you out here." Gwen regarded Trent curiously and somewhat smugly figuring he had something to do with her going out into the woods in the first place. "I wanted to… apologize."

"For what?" Gwen asked. As far as she knew Trent hadn't ever done anything to her.

"For the other night…" Gwen remained silent. "You know… The dream."

"What're you-" Gwen began, but stopped a moment later. "Oh. That." She deadpanned.

"Yeah. That."

"… What was that about anyways? And why are you apologizing?" Trent sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Well… it's kind of hard to explain." He began slowly. "We, that is the others and I… We have this… _ability_. This sort of power. We call it Dreamscape."

"Dreamscape?" Gwen echoed. Trent nodded.

"Yeah. Dreamscape. We have the ability to go into Live One's dreams. When you and the others first came here I was sent to go into your dreams to tell you what happened to us. But… My Dreamscape is more powerful than the others'…"

"How?" Gwen asked curiously. At the moment she didn't really care that this ghost had breeched a very personal boundary that was her dreams. Instead she was fascinated that he could do it at all.

"The others can't change what a Live One sees in their dreams, they can only enter their dreams. I can make a Live One's dreams into anything I want, but… I'm not very good at controlling it." He paused for a moment, probably letting what he was saying sink in for a minute before continuing. "They sent me in to change your dreams because if anyone else had done it you probably wouldn't have believed them. Lot of good it did us anyways…" He added under his breath.

"Why didn't you go into my friends' dreams too? Why only me?"

"Entering a Live One's dreams is very draining on both the Live One and us. I was only supposed to go into one and… I chose you. You looked like you could handle having two consciousnesses inside you at once. But once I got in there I lost control. Things went out of whack and… I'm sorry if I scared you." He finished in a whisper. Gwen considered all of what the ghost boy had just told her. By the sound of it he was truly sorry for freaking her out, but it wasn't his fault in the first place anyways.

"It's ok Trent. I was just a bit rattled afterwards, that's all." Gwen reassured the distraught teen. Trent looked at her in disbelief.

"But things could have seriously gone wrong." Trent pressed as if he wanted Gwen to be mad at him. "Dreams can be a dangerous place, Gwen. If my sister hadn't dragged me out of there I don't know what could have happened." Gwen's eyebrows shot into her hairline. His sister had pulled him out? So she had had _two_ ghosts inside her at once? No wonder she was so freaked out afterwards. Trent was starting to beat himself up so Gwen quickly decided to change the subject.

"So your sister pulled you out? I heard you had a sister. Courtney right?" Gwen cut into Trent's ramble. Trent blinked in surprise before nodding.

"Oh… Yeah. Courtney. And my brother, Noah." His attention returned to the path and he smiled. "They're near here, actually."

"Really?" Gwen looked around in surprise. She realized that they had made it out of the forest and somehow came to the path that lead from the campgrounds to Chris' cabin.

"Yeah. Courtney should be talking with that one… His name slips my mind…" Trent trailed off looking genuinely confused.

"Duncan."

"Right. Duncan."

"Can we go see them?" Trent frowned and shook his head.

"No. They're talking about something… important. I don't think we should disturb them. Besides your friend will probably tell you all about it when he gets back." Gwen frowned but nodded and reluctantly walked step for step with Trent back to Chris' cabin.

"… What are your sister and brother like?" Gwen asked as they walked. She didn't particularly want to hear about his family, but it was the only thing she could come up with to fill the silence. Trent, however, seemed happy to talk about his siblings.

"Well Noah and Courtney are practically exactly the same, but they'll both deny it. They are twins after all. Noah is a few minutes older than Courtney and never lets her forget it. They always get into fights but they're actually really close."

"So what about you? Are you older or younger?" Gwen asked.

"Well… I'm adopted, actually. My adopted parents thought they couldn't have kids so they adopted me, but then they surprised everyone by having Noah and Courtney. I don't mind though. I love my parents and Noah and Courtney. I'm a year and a half older than both of them, but Courtney is more like the eldest if you ask me. She's incredibly bossy, but she means well."

"So I've heard." Gwen commented with a smirk.

"So how about you? You got any brothers or sisters?" Trent asked.

"Well, I do have my one annoying kid brother…"

And so it went on.

Trent and Gwen continued to talk, even after they arrived back at Chris' cabin. They stayed close to the place where Gwen had first entered the forest that morning and talked with one another. Gwen mostly spoke about her home and family and school. Trent didn't mind. In fact he actually liked listening to Gwen tell tales about all her misadventures with the friends she had arrived on the island with.

Soon it was well passed noon, and the two probably would have continued talking throughout the whole day if they hadn't been interrupted_._

"Trent you idiot, get up! The Banshee is coming!" Someone hollered at them. Blinking at one another in surprise they turned to see who had called to them. Four people were currently making their way towards Trent and Gwen, two looked angry and frantic, the others curious and afraid.

"LeShawna? Geoff?" Trent gasped.

"Harold? Bridgette?" Gwen gasped along with Trent.

The four were running as fast as they could, an endless sea of mist racing after them like wild gray horses as they did.

* * *

**The moral of the story: Always donate canned foods or whatever when your school has those event things. You never know, you might just be feeding a bunch of stranded teenagers on a haunted island filled with psychotic ghosts. **

**Well, this is part I of chap 7. Mostly bonding between Trent and Gwen, boring I know. I've never written anything involving Trent and Gwen specifically so I'm just now practicing their charactors and their relationships. They're probably OOC, but I really don't care if they are or aren't. I try. ^_^ **

**So basically this chapter is set just a few minutes after Duncan left to talk with Courtney. The next part will be minutes after Gwen left, and so on and so forth. It is then when you will discover why LeShawna and Geoff are with Harold and Bridgette and why the evil mist of doom is chasing after them. Until then, reviews plz! **

**(Dreamspirit and Blactwist emerge from the shadows and loom over me ominously)**

**A-And don't worry, I'll update real soon this time! PROMISE!**

**(They melt back into the shadows.. like ninja assassins...)**

**Well... Ja, that's about it. Once more, reviews would be lovely. It will keep those two off my back... please don't let them throw me in the shack of doom. PLEASE! TT_TT**

**Silent Assassin**


	8. Ghost Stories, Part II

**(Insert trumpet fanfare) DUN DUNNAAAA! UPDATE! HAPPY 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY HAUNTED CAMPGROUNDS! You guys didn't seriously think I wouldn't update on the one year anniversary did you? I've actually had this done for a while but I wanted to update it on the anniversary. So enjoy the next part of **_**The Haunted Campgrounds**_**. It'll probably be a bit boring. Mostly just BridgettexGeoff bonding, some explination of a ghost's memory, and some insight into the Banshee. Nevertheless, enjoy!**

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_Chapter 7: Ghost Stories, Part II_

What do you _mean _my friends are in trouble?" Duncan hollered as he struggled to keep up with the ghosts. Courtney noticed him falling behind and slowed down so that she could fly beside him.

"The Banshee found your friends." Courtney told him.

"Well yeah I know _that_!" Duncan snapped causing Courtney to scowl. "But who is the Banshee? What will she do to them?" Noah turned his head to see what the hold up was. Seeing Courtney had slowed down he rolled his eyes and glared at Duncan.

"Drain them dry if we don't _hurry_!" Noah said as he too slowed to fly beside his sister. He turned his attention away from Duncan and to the brunette beside him. "LeShawna managed to get them into Chris' cabin so they're protected for now. Meanwhile they're trying to convince the Banshee to call off the attack."

"How the hell can they be protected in Chris' cabin? What's keeping the Banshee out?" Duncan huffed as he ran. Noah sneered at Duncan before flying ahead of both of them leaving Duncan and Courtney behind. "Hey! What's keeping them out?"

"Heather." Courtney answered curtly without looking at him. Duncan looked at her in surprise wanting her to elaborate. Deciding against it he accepted her answer for the moment, instead returning his focus to running and saving his breath and getting to his friends before the Banshee did something bad.

* * *

_Not long after Gwen left the cabin..._

Bridgette was dreaming. She didn't know how she knew, but she recognized the feeling of freedom and lack of consequences one experienced while dreaming, the way things that would be completely out of the norm in the waking world made perfect sense in the dream world. That, and the fact that she was surfing underwater, which made absolutely no sense, but somehow she did it anyway. She did it because the subconscious mind didn't care about what was possible and what wasn't. Besides, she had this dream often.

And so Bridgette surfed under the waves, or was it inside a wave? She couldn't tell and she didn't really care. Either way she was surfing. And someone was surfing with her.

Bridgette laughed loudly as she surfed. She tried a few tricks she could never land before that her cousin had shown her once and surfed through the coral reef around her. The person who was surfing alongside her laughed along with her and started doing flips and spins all around her on their board. But it wasn't a surfboard, it was a skateboard. It made no sense that this person could be skateboarding underwater, but the subconscious mind didn't care about sense.

She couldn't clearly see their face. It was like looking into a broken mirror or a stain glass window. The image was blurred and broken, but you could make out a definite shape. Somehow this broken image was familiar and seeing them was a comforting sight, as if she had seen this person every day in her life. Well, maybe not quite that. It was more like this person was an old friend and she was happy to see them again after a long time. Yeah, something more like that. She couldn't really tell, but she didn't care. She only cared about racing through the water with this person, whoever they were. The person beside her smiled at her again and, without warning, lazily skated into Bridgette's path, which caused her to stop and stare at the person curiously.

"I'm sorry." The skater said.

"Why?" Bridgette heard herself asking. The person only continued to smile and lightly tapped their head. The person must have noticed Bridgette's look of confusion, because they then lightly tapped her own forehead. For one reason or another this made Bridgette to lose her balance on her surfboard causing her to fall back. She stared up in horror while she fell, the broken smile of the mysterious skater the only thing in her line of vision.

Bridgette couldn't tell whether she was falling up or down, only that she was falling. Falling is a terrifying thing to experience when you don't know what meets you at the end of the drop, and she felt her heart begin to race with fear. The skater's first last and only words echoed in her ears as the sickening fall continued. _'I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' _But sorry for what? She couldn't recall if this person had ever done something wrong. She felt herself break the surface of the water, which made no sense, because Bridgette could have sworn she had been underwater a moment ago and falling down, not up. Then again she couldn't tell if she had been falling up or down in the first place. Which was which? She couldn't remember. Anyways, dreams didn't have to make sense. Dreams were fueled by the subconscious mind trying to deal with problems that couldn't be solved while awake. Not like Bridgette had any problems that needed to be dealt with. She somehow got the feeling that dreams made no sense because making sense or being realistic was no fun, or because they liked messing with people's heads…

Bridgette's train of thought abruptly jumped track when she was jolted awake only to find herself lying on a couch and not surfing underwater or falling down to her death. Or was it up? Either way she wasn't falling anymore, which made Bridgette's half asleep brain content and caused her racing heart to slow some.

"Good dream." Bridgette muttered sleepily as she flipped over onto her stomach trying to get comfortable on the lumpy couch. Couches should not be this lumpy, she decided. Couches ought to be comfortable.

_But wait, why am I on a couch in the first place? _Her half asleep mind wondered. _I thought I was in a sleeping bag… huh… weird…_Bridgette rolled over again in an another attempt to get comfortable… but ended up rolling off the couch instead.

Bridgette yelped loudly as she landed with a thud on something that was even lumpier than the couch. That something also yelped.

"Gah! My coccyx! Whhhyyy?" The thing under her groaned pathetically. Gasping in alarm Bridgette jumped to her feet to see that she had landed on Harold, who was now rubbing his back.

"Sorry Harold!" Bridgette whispered to the pained redhead. Briskly she gave him an encouraging pat on the head before straitening up. As it would seem, Bridgette was _not _in her tent. Instead she found herself standing in a dimly lit room with the guys sleeping around her.

_Oh, duh. _Bridgette thought dully. _We came here yesterday. _Scanning the room Bridgette saw that Tyler DJ and Harold were still asleep, but Duncan and Gwen were missing from their little group. _Duncan probably left already, but where'd Gwen go? _She wondered. Deciding not to dwell on it Bridgette stretched and yawned figuring Gwen went to the bathroom or something. A loud rumbling met Bridgette's ears and she smiled slightly when she realized it was only her stomach. Yawning once more she made her way towards the kitchen…

"What going on?" Bridgette asked tiredly when she entered the kitchen. Beth and Chris were already up and in the kitchen. Chris seemed to be crying into his hands for some reason and Beth was patting his back and talking to him soothingly in an attempt to calm him down. To Bridgette's half asleep mind it was an odd sight to wake up to.

"Chris is just having a moment s'all." Beth answered without looking away from the distraught ex-host. Bridgette cocked a curious eyebrow at the two wondering what a 'moment' meant to these people. But again she only shrugged and decided not to dwell on it.

"So, when do we get breakfast?" Bridgette asked as she seated herself on one of the stools at the counter.

"Oh, we don't." Beth answered. "We don't eat much here. We have to save our food as much as possible until the next time they let us leave, and you never know when that will be." Bridgette groaned as her stomach growled and let her head drop to the countertop.

"Oh well. Guess I could find some _plants _to eat." She grumbled bitterly.

"Y-Your friend left a while ago." She heard Chris mutter.

"To find plants?" Bridgette asked lifting her head off the table to look up at Chris. The man was rubbing his eyes while Beth continued to pat his back.

"No. To t-talk with… the ghosts." He told her.

"Oh. You mean Duncan?" Chris ceased rubbing his eyes and nodded before finally meeting the surfer girl's gaze. "Oh. Ok… Do you think he'll be alright?" Bridgette asked uncertainly. Beth and Chris shared a glance before they both shrugged.

"I don't know." Beth answered honestly. "They can be unpredictable sometimes. We won't know until he comes back."

"What do we do until then?"

"Keep ourselves entertained I guess."

"Ok… how do you usually keep yourselves entertained?" Beth shrugged again.

"Contemplate the meaning of life." The nerdy girl replied. Bridgette couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not, so she changed the subject.

"So… You said Duncan went to go talk with Courtney, right?" Bridgette asked. The two nodded. "Ok… But did you see my friend Gwen go by?"

"She's not here?" Beth asked looking both curious and slightly alarmed.

"No. I figured she went to the bathroom or something."

"I saw her a few minutes ago when I came downstairs but I don't know where she went. I didn't even know she left." Beth glanced at Chris expectantly, but the man merely gazed at the wall dismally, lost within his own thoughts. Beth frowned before returning her attention to the surfer.

"Do you think she went outside?" Bridgette asked worriedly.

"I don't see why she would want to. We warned you not to walk around alone."

"But… Duncan said that Courtney said it was safe…"

"And I said I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled one on you if they catch you alone. If Gwen is smart, even if she did go outside, she probably had the sense to stay near the cabin."

"Maybe I should go look for her… Just in case." Bridgette mumbled uncertainly. Beth sighed in defeat.

"At least take one of your friends with you then. We don't need two outsiders getting lost here."

"I don't want to wake them up." Bridgette whispered, as if just now remembering that the guys were still asleep and lowering her voice accordingly. "If I'm lucky Gwen is probably nearby. If she isn't I'll come straight back, promise." The nerdy girl eyed Bridgette for a moment or two before sighing once more. Nothing else needed to be said, and Bridgette quietly stood from her stool to retrieve her shoes and signature blue jacket before venturing out of the cabin.

Once outside, Bridgette couldn't help but crack a tiny smile. The air was crisp and sweet as it often was after rain. Inhaling deeply through her nose Bridgette's smile grew a little wider when the scent of wet earth and flowers washed over her. A few tiny rays of sun were able to peek through the dark clouds in the sky washing what light they could over her dark surroundings. Bridgette yawned widely and rubbed her eyes. She still felt incredibly tired for some reason, probably because she spent the night on a lumpy couch. Small smile still on her face, Bridgette took a quick look around. Gwen was nowhere near the cabin from what she could tell. Smile vanishing as fast as it had appeared, Bridgette sighed in annoyance, realizing she'd have to go look for her friend. Choosing a random direction, the blonde set off to do just that.

She was unaware that she was going in the opposite direction her friend had taken a mere few minutes before her. One person, however, was aware of this fact. This person grinned before melting back into the trees, eager and excited at the sight of the teenager who was making her way towards the forest.

* * *

Bridgette was _not _amused.

Ten minutes had passed since she left the cabin and she had found no sight of Gwen. Getting pretty bored of looking for her after the first five minutes she was going to head back… Only to realize she had not stayed as close to the tree line as she thought.

So after five minutes of walking around in circles, which actually felt like five hours, Bridgette was angry and lost and nervous and scared all at once. This did not make Bridgette a happy camper. Nope, not at all.

Glaring at a nearby tree Bridgette came to an abrupt halt. Now normally Bridgette was a very kind and gentle soul who loved all of nature's beauty. A born tree-hugger through and through. But at the moment, Bridgette hated trees. More specifically, she hated _this _tree. This particular tree was fairly short. It was barely a foot taller than herself with low hanging braches that one could easily climb or sit on. It had very few leaves on it, and what leaves did still cling to the branches were all a very deep red. It's wood was a lighter brown than most of the other trees around it which is what really made it stand out. In all appearances it was a perfectly normal, innocent tree. But despite that Bridgette still hated it. Why?

Because Bridgette had passed this tree. Four times. She had counted each time she passed.

Bridgette's scowl deepened slightly. This tree had done nothing to deserve the currant death glares it was receiving, but that didn't stop Bridgette. She glared and scowled and glared some more, but the tree did not respond in any way. It only stood there as a silent reminder that she was clearly lost.

"… Don't mock me." Bridgette hissed suddenly. And the tree_ was_ mocking her. She could practically _feel _the smugness emanating off the small tree. Oh yes, the tree _enjoyed _watching her struggle. "I know I'm lost. No need to rub it in! I'll find my way out eventually." A cool breeze stirred Bridgette's hair and rustled the leaves left on the branches. 'Oh, I'd like to see you try.' The tree seemed to say. Bridgette responded by snorting and turning her nose up at the tree.

"You know, talking to yourself is the first sign of madness." A voice suddenly said from somewhere behind Bridgette. The blonde surfer yelped in alarm before swinging around and striking out behind her blindly, only to feel the strange yet familiar sense of icy coolness creeping into her hand. Imagine Bridgette's surprise when she found the source of the bone-chilling cold. A boy stood behind Bridgette. He wore sandals, blue shorts, a tall brown cowboy hat, and a pink vest with no shirt underneath it despite the cool fall air. But it wasn't the fact that the boy had seemingly appeared out of nowhere that surprised Bridgette, nor was it his odd choice of clothes.

It was the fact that her hand was sticking through his forehead and that the boy seemed just as surprised as she was, if not a bit amused.

"Ya mind getting that out of there? It gets a bit hot after a while." The boy said with a smile.

Bridgette's response to this request was a scream.

The boy's response to her scream was a flinch.

"Whoa, calm yourself dudette." He said slowly. He held his hands up in front of him in a non-threatening manner. "I'm not goanna hurt you."

"W-Who are you?" Bridgette gasped as she scrambled backwards in an attempt to put some distance between herself and the mysterious boy. She quickly found herself backing into the mocking tree and rubbing her slightly numb hand in an effort to warm it up. The boy opened his mouth to respond, then closed it and smirked.

"Names, names, names. Is that all you people care about?" he replied teasingly.

"What do you-" Bridgette began to ask, but the words caught in her throat as she looked at the boy closely, wondering why those words sounded so familiar.

"Calm yourself dudette." The boy repeated. "I'm not here to cause trouble. I'm here to help you."

After hearing these familiar words as well, it clicked.

"You… You're that… ghost. You helped me find the medicine…" Bridgette said slowly. The boy smiled and nodded. Now while Bridgette was still uneasy with this whole thing about saving spirits she believed were out to get them, this one _had _helped her find the medicine that helped both Gwen and herself. This and this alone is what kept Bridgette from running away from the boy who stood before her.

"Well, since you do seem to care about names so much, I'll tell you mine." Said the boy. Plucking his hat off his head he held it aloft and gave a grand bow. "Warner, Geoff Warner, professional party boy, at your service." Bridgette couldn't help but crack a small smile at the boy's, Geoff's, actions.

"I'm Bridgette." The surfer girl replied as Geoff straightened up and set his hat back on his head. "Just Bridgette."

"Cool." Geoff grinned.

"Yeah." Bridgette nodded. "So, um… what brings you out here?" She asked lamely.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing." Geoff replied. But before Bridgette could respond Geoff continued. "But anyways, it doesn't really matter _why_ you're here. What _does _matter is that I have instructions to escort any Live One I see back to the host's cabin."

"But I'm looking for my-" Bridgette began to explain, but stopped midsentence and stared at the ghost boy questioningly. "Wait, what's a 'live one'?" Geoff smiled and waved the comment off.

"Nothing, just spirit slang." He replied. "What did you say you were looking for?"

"Uh… My friend, Gwen. She wandered off a while ago. Have you seen her?" Bridgette asked hopefully. Geoff frowned as his eyes went skyward and his brow furrowed, pondering the question for a moment before answering.

"Can't say I have. You're the only Live One I've seen all morning." In seeing Bridgette disappointed frown he hastily continued. "But don't worry about it! A couple of my buddies are patrolling the host's cabin to keep an eye on you guys in case Justin or the Banshee decide to show up. Your friend probably ran into one of them. If not then they'll probably run into her eventually. So, yeah, no need to worry about it." He explained quickly.

"Wait a second, what? Your 'buddies' are keeping an eye on us? As in, you're _spying _on us?" Bridgette asked suspiciously.

"What? No! Not _spying_. _Protecting_." The ghost replied sounding both surprised and flustered.

"From _Justin _and 'the Banshee'?" his head jerked up and down in a sharp nod. "Why exactly do we need 'protection' from Justin and the Banshee?"

"That's… not something you really need to be concerned with, dudette." He answered slowly. Geoff frowned and turned his gaze to the ground. "At least, not right now…" he added under his breath, though Bridgette still heard him. "Just… Please, I'm sorry if I scared you or anything, but I'm supposed to take back any Live One I find. If you come with me I promise that I'll get you back safely." The boy lifted his head up to lock his gaze with her own. Bridgette expected to see a few things when her eyes met Geoff's. Desperation, irritation, hope, maybe even anger…

But she did not expect to see _nothing. _No emotion shone in the boy's sapphire blue eyes. Only the frown that still marred his face led Bridgette, who was slightly taken aback by the completely blank stare, to believe that he was either sincere about bringing her back to the cabin safely or just plain irritated.

"Well… ok." She yielded after a moment. Geoff's frown instantly broke into a wide grin.

"Sweet! Just follow me, dudette. I know these woods like the back of my occasionally transparent hand!" the boy said happily as he marched off towards the surrounding trees. Slightly bemused by his sudden shift in mood Bridgette followed the ghost away from the mocking tree and back into the woods, hiding a tiny smile as she did.

The moment the teenagers were gone from the small clearing, a tiny breeze stirred the leaves upon the mocking tree yet again.

'_There is hope.' _The tree seemed to say.

And then all was still in the forest once more.

* * *

Bridgette walked silently behind Geoff as she listened to him speak. She did not know how long they had been walking, only that it had been a while and that she appeared no closer to the cabin as she had been before. The thought that Geoff had gotten them even more lost often crossed her mind, but she dismissed these thoughts as soon as they entered her mind. Despite the uneasiness she felt towards the ghosts Bridgette at least trusted this one to get her back to Chris' cabin safely. She was certain Geoff would get her back… eventually.

During the moments in time when Bridgette didn't fret over being lost she found herself listening intently to Geoff. The ghost boy seemed to have many stories to tell from the days he spent in camp when he was still alive. Bridgette was all too happy to listen to his stories, if only for something to fill the silence of the forest around her. Geoff was surprisingly good in that department.

His favorite stories seemed to be the times he spent in the camp when he was still alive.

"Then, after Trent and I stole everyone's underwear, we ran them up the flag pole! It was _so_ cool!" Geoff was saying. "Sure it's the oldest trick in the book, but it's also the funniest!" Most of Geoff's misadventures seemed to have one other person along for the rise. Geoff and Trent, a boy she heard Gwen mention the other night, seemed to be good friends. And according to Geoff the two had had a lot of fun pulling pranks on the other campers back when they were alive.

"You know, Geoff…" Bridgette cut in slowly as she strolled behind him. Said ghost turned his head to her and regarded her questioningly. "I don't want to offend you or anything but… I can't help but notice something about you."

"What's that? Something good I hope." He replied with amusement.

"Well… Of all the ghosts I know, or, _know of_ I guess since you're the first one I've _met_, you seem sort of different." Geoff cocked a blonde eyebrow at her. Bridgette fumbled to elaborate. She turned her gaze towards the trees they passed by, a light embarrassed blush tinting her cheeks pink. "Yeah, different. I've sure you've heard of the ghost stereotype before. Dark, moody, running around and scaring the living shit out of people. But you seem… different. You seem… I don't know, happy." This brought a bright smile to Geoff's face.

"Thanks Bridge. I guess you're kind of right though. I am different. Most of us… don't have a reason to smile anymore." Though his tone was sad Geoff's smile remained.

"So why do you?" Bridgette asked returning her attention from the trees to Geoff. She picked up her pace a bit so that she could walk beside Geoff so he didn't need to crane his neck around to look at her, careful not to stand too close due to the cold he radiated. Bridgette's question caused Geoff's smile to grow a little wider.

"Oh, that's an easy one! I'm happy because out of all of us, I remember the good times on the island the most." Geoff answered easily as he walked straight through a particularly large tangle of roots on the ground without even looking at it. Bridgette regarded him enviously as she carefully picked her way over the large death trap. Roots always seemed to be out to get her. Walking through stuff would make getting around _so _much easier.

"What do you mean?" She asked after safely stepping over the roots.

"It's kind of hard to explain… but hey, we got time, right?" Bridgette nodded, eyes burning with curiosity as she regarded the boy beside her. Geoff nodded and began to speak. "Sweet! Ok where to begin… Well to put it simply, during the time we've been stuck here our memories have faded. We don't remember much anymore, but what we do remember we cling to desperately." Geoff paused for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts. "Memories are everything to us… It's… memories are one of the only things we have left besides each other. Memories help to keep us sane. Hell, memories might be the only reason I can stand here and talk to you."

"What do you mean?" Bridgette asked again.

"Noah, he's another ghost, has a theory about it. You can't change a memory, you can't touch a memory, but you can see it and hear it. He thinks that because the others remember us as we are now that that's why we're able to appear like this. He thinks all we are… are memories." Bridgette regarded Geoff worriedly. The blonde haired ghost was staring at the sky with a forlorn look on his face, as if lost in the very memories her now spoke of. He remained this way for a few moments more before shaking his head and smiling. "But anyways I'm getting a bit off topic. I was saying I was happy because I remember the good times, right?"

"Yes." Bridgette replied hesitantly still feeling a bit concerned for the boy.

"That's pretty much it. Guess it wasn't as hard to explain as I thought! I'm happy because I remember happy times." Bridgette found it hard to believe it was as simple as that.

"And… what about the others?" she asked.

"The others don't really talk about what they remember much. It's kind of a touchy subject between us." He answered with a shrug. "Oh, but there was this one time when I overheard Trent and Courtney talking once. Trent seems to remember their family a lot. He was telling Courtney about them one day. He seemed a bit sad that she didn't remember them as well as he did, though."

"How come Courtney couldn't remember them?" Asked Bridgette, surprised. She found it hard to believe anyone could forget their family. She herself felt as if she could never forget her own mom and dad. But if she did, she knew she would feel terrible. She could only imagine that that was how Courtney had felt when talking to Trent. Geoff shook his head, amused at Bridgette's question.

"We can't _choose _what we remember." He answered with a small chuckle. "If we could then we would have a lot more happy spirits running around. No, we have no control over who or what we can remember. All we have is what's left over. For example, some of us remember the good times, like Trent and I... But others remember the bad times, like Justin and the Banshee."

"The Banshee? You mentioned that before…" Bridgette cut in. "The Banshee is one of you?"

"She used to be…" Geoff answered with a sigh. Abruptly Geoff stopped walking and Bridgette nearly went right past him before stopping. Turning to face the stationary ghost Bridgette was about to ask why they had stopped their trek through the woods, but Geoff continued before she could. "But her memories made her dark and twisted. She isn't the same person she was before." The boy sighed again, an odd action for someone who had no need for breath anymore, and sat down where he stood. Or at least he _should _have sat down. Instead he merely brought his legs up under him and floated there in midair, as if sitting cross-legged on an invisible chair. This caused Bridgette's eyes to widen in slight alarm. Geoff in seeing this smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Party trick." He said apologetically. With that he lowered himself accordingly so that he appeared to sit on the actual ground. Bridgette, forgetting their need to return to Chris' cabin for the moment, also lowered herself to sit across from Geoff. Leaning against a nearby tree Bridgette regarded the ghost boy expectantly.

"Now, what were you saying about the Banshee?" She asked.

"Nothing… I just don't like to think about her much." Geoff answered honestly. His lifeless sapphire eyes slid shut as he hung his head slightly, and Bridgette could tell that what he was about to say was hard for him. "She was normal when we first… met up, after we died. But then the bad memories got to her. What she became… scares me. I think it scares all of us. We're afraid that bad memories could do that to us too. So far she's the only one to lose herself to bad memories, but Justin is close behind… we'll lose him too if we don't get out of here soon." His eyes slid back open, though he stared blankly at the ground. "You know, there's a reason why we call her the Banshee…" Geoff said thoughtfully, almost to himself. Bridgette remained quiet, lending the ghost boy an ear she knew he needed. "She screams and wails all the time when the memories are particularly bad, and it's not that we don't hear her… it's that we don't listen anymore." He tilted his head up so that sapphire blue met forest green once more. He looked almost ashamed of himself. "I know it sounds bad, but like I said, we're afraid of what we can become. Going near her just…"

"Geoff." Bridgette interrupted gently. The boy fell silent and looked at her intently. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." She said softly. After hearing this ghost's story, her heart truly went out to him and the other dead teenagers. To forget more than half of your life, to be stranded on an island for many years, to live in constant fear of something you can become, knowing that the only way to escape it is to escape the island itself… she would not wish that upon her worst enemy.

Her heart ached for the stranded ghosts, and it was in this instant she wished for nothing more than to help them.

And to her relief, Geoff smiled once more.

"Thanks Bridge." He said sincerely.

"Any time Geoff." She replied. Silence then overcame the two of them, but it was not an awkward sort of silence. It was a companionable silence. A silence one would share with a close friend that they say every day in their life.

_Well, maybe not like that. _Bridgette thought idly as she watched Geoff from the corner of her eye. _More like… an old friend you see after a long time and you're happy to see them. Yeah, that's it. _Not acknowledging the fact that those words sounded somewhat familiar Bridgette's gaze flicked from Geoff's silent form to the trees around them. Now that Geoff was here, now that she wasn't alone, Bridgette felt much more comfortable around the trees and took the opportunity to admire their beauty.

The chilly fall air rendered what were once green leaves to beautiful shades of red gold and brown. An occasional breeze would stir the leaves on the trees causing them the shower down onto the earth in a stunning cascade of color. Bridgette smiled. She couldn't recall the last time she just sat back and watched the leaves fall. Bridgette made a firm mental note to always remember this. To remember the sight of the colors, the sounds of the rustling leaves, and the smell of the cool crisp fall air. To remember where she was and who she was with.

To remember what she was sure Geoff would not.

"… Hey Bridge, there's something I want to tell you." Geoff said tentatively after a few minutes of watching the leaves. No doubt he didn't want to break the peaceful silence that had fallen over them. Nevertheless Bridgette returned her attention to the ghost boy and smiled sweetly.

"Yes?"

"I wanted to apologize for scaring you the other day." Seeing Bridgette's confused look he went on. "You know, in the medical tent. I was just sent to talk to you, but when I saw you looking for the medicine I had to help you out. I didn't _mean _to scare you. That just happens every time a Live One first gets too near one of us."

"Oh yeah. That." Bridgette shrugged nonchalantly before smiling again. "It's ok Geoff. The medicine you helped me find helped Gwen _and _me. Without it we wouldn't have been able to get over our shock so quickly."

"You sure you're ok with it? You seemed a bit freaked out when you left." Geoff asked actually sounding surprised at her not being mad at him.

"Positive."

"Oh… ok, cool! I tried to apologize this morning too in your Dreamscape, but you were having that weird dream of surfing under water, and I couldn't even get your attention until-"

"Wait, what's a 'dreamscape'?" Bridgette cut in. Geoff blinked once, looked a bit more surprised than before, and waved the question off.

"Oh nothing. Just another thing you don't really need to know about. No harm no foul or whatever. Wasn't even in there that long." He replied doggedly.

"Right…" Bridgette muttered regarding him with mock suspicion. Her suspicious expression fell a moment later however to be replaced with an excited one. "But you got to tell me how you made my hand move on its own like that. Looking back on it now that was too cool!" Bridgette's excited grin caused Geoff to grin in turn.

"Just another party trick you pick up over the years." He answered happily. "We call it Overshadowing. It takes a lot of concentration to do it but I couldn't really see any other way to get you to pick up the right bottle."

"That's cool." Bridgette grin faded into a content smile. "Well, thanks again for helping me. Gwen and I appreciate it." Geoff nodded and the two lapsed into their comfortable silence once more. This one did not last as long as the first, however, because soon Geoff was speaking again.

"You know what, Bridge? I like you." Geoff said offhandedly. Bridgette's eyes winded in surprise as she stared at the ghost boy incredulously, a faint red blush rising to her cheeks.

"W-What?" She stuttered. Clearly she was caught off-guard by the random statement. Oblivious to the girl's surprise and embarrassment Geoff appeared completely at ease.

"I like you." He repeated more slowly and clearly, as if making sure she understood every word he said. "You're so… full of life and energy. It's refreshing to be around someone like that. You radiate life like the sun." He elaborated gesturing vaguely to the sky. His smile became a sad one when he saw the weak rays of sunlight breaking through the dark clouds. "I miss the sun. The clouds block out the sun here. On a good day like this a few rays are able to get through though." Still feeling slightly embarrassed at Geoff's comment Bridgette smiled nervously. Choosing to ignore Geoff's depressing comment Bridgette responded,

"Thanks Geoff… I like you too." At that Geoff's smile curled up a bit, though you could still see the sadness in his features as he looked longing at the sky. "So… tell me more about your memories in camp. What else did you and Trent do?" She asked in an attempt to get Geoff's mind off the sun. It worked brilliantly seeing as all traces of unhappiness were immediately wiped from his features. A real, genuine smile graced his face as his gaze went from the clouds to the girl beside him.

"What _didn't _we do?" He responded happily. "There was this one time when me and Trent played this awesome prank on Owen. And let me tell you now… it involved sandwiches, lotion, crusty underwear, and lots and lots of hot sauce…"

And so it went on.

Two teenagers, one alive and one dead, shared stories beneath a tree in the forest. Well, mostly Geoff spoke, and Bridgette sat back and listened. She didn't mind though. Bridgette enjoyed listening to his stories just as much as Geoff enjoyed telling them. Occasionally Bridgette would tell her own stories of times she spent with her friends and Geoff would happily listen in turn. It was a time Bridgette would remember for as long as she lived. And throughout it all Bridgette was unaware that she was currently beneath the very tree she had passed so many times that morning. They were_ both_ unaware when a stray shaft of light pierced through the clouds, shining down upon the mocking tree behind them…

And that the tree appeared to smile…

A somewhat smug smile, but a smile nonetheless.

Soon it was well passed noon, and the two probably would have continued talking throughout the whole day if they hadn't been interrupted_._

"Come on, string bean! _Move _those skinny white boy legs!" Someone shouted.

"I'm coming! _Gosh_!" Someone yelled back. Suddenly two figures came charging through the trees, one running and one flying, and both Geoff and Bridgette gasped in alarm.

"LeShawna?" Geoff gasped.

"Harold?" Bridgette gasped.

"Come on Geoff! The Banshee is coming!" The person Bridgette could only assume was named LeShawna called.

"What?" Bridgette cried in a panicky tone. Geoff made to answer her, but before he could the two people disappeared, a sea of dark gray fog following after them as they did.

* * *

**Somewhat of a long AN ahead, so I'll try to keep it short 'n sweet. Make sure you read it all though, some of it is important.**

**So Court's comment has got to have you a bit confused. Heather is protecting the cabin? What does that mean?**

**I had fun writing Bridgette's dream so its probably a bit kooky**

**It was Blacktwist (the idiot who forgot her password on here so now she can't get on) Who sugguested I put the 'mocking tree' in there. It serves no REAL purpose, just a little bit of symbolism I decied throw in there**

**Lol, Geoff seems to say the wrong thing around Bridgette a lot. And so enter Geoff Warner, pro party boy! Here he explains a ghost's memory, something Trent mentioned in the last chapter. (Le sigh) A mind is a terrible thing to lose. We also get some more insight into the Banshee. We learn a bit of what she is... but not **_**who **_**she is. Geoff's mood swings might seem a bit OOC, but remember, they're all a bit OOC.**

**YA, I made Geoff and Trent best friends in this story, big deal, wanna fight about it? XD!**

**I personally like the 'To remember what she was sure Geoff would not' quote. It made me all warm and fuzzy inside when I wrote it ;3**

**In case I wasn't totally clear Bridgette and Geoff walked in a huge circle and ended up back at the mocking tree. Neither noticed because they were so engrossed with each other**

**I just realized I capitalize the ghosts' powers... o_O?**

**And so a year passes, and Halloween is right around the corner once more... Imma be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde... at THE SAME TIME :D**

**I used to wonder how writers could take so long to write a story... and now I understand.**

**And FINALLY, once again, happy one year anniversary Haunted Campgrounds! And to those who have stayed with this story since the begging, thank you so much! I wans't expecting very much feedback on this. Maybe 40 reviews TOPS. But now I find myself with 60! So thank you again! It's my dream to get at least 100 reviews and a story and I really hope this will be the one to reach 100. So please, I beg you, don't forget to review!**

**Many, MANY thanks to you all, **

**The Silent Assassin**


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